GW Grad Samantha Brugmann Holds Seminar on Craniofacial Development

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Samantha Brugmann, Ph.D. ’05, associate professor in the Department of Surgery’s Division of Plastic Surgery and Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Developmental Biology within the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, returned to the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) to present a research seminar on her work, titled “Understanding the Cellular and Molecular Etiology of Craniofacial Ciliopathies,” April 19.In 2016, Brugmann, who attended the genetics program at GW’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences (IBS), received the highest honor bestowed by the United States government to science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers — the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She was one of only 105 researchers and engineers nationwide to earn the award that year.
Nominees are put forth by federal funding agencies that support their work, Sally Moody, Ph.D., interim chair of the Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Biology and professor of anatomy and regenerative biology at SMHS, said in introducing Brugmann. “Samantha has been very successful garnering NIH funding and … of the 100 people who get this award, the NIH only awarded 12,” she explained.
“I was most fortunate to have Samantha in my laboratory,” Moody added. “I am personally so proud, the Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Biology is so proud, the IBS is so proud [of Brugmann’s success].”
Brugmann’s research at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center focuses on craniofacial abnormalities, which comprise about a third of all birth defects.
She said her interest in ciliopathies, which are a class of disorders caused by defects in the formation or function of the cilia (tiny, hair-like structures that line surface of certain organs in the body), began with the release of a review in 2010 from Phil Beales, Ph.D., the head of Genetics and Genomic Medicine at the University College of London, and his colleagues.
“They had ...

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