Maura McGrail, associate professor in genetics, development and cell biology, is the recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Achievement in Research Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. Her research combines zebrafish functional genomics and developmental genetics to examine cellular processes in normal brain development and disease. McGrail is an established and highly respected leader in the field of gene editing and genome engineering. She has been awarded approximately $10 million in grant funding and established fruitful research collaborations at numerous institutions. The impact of her work continues to grow and become a foundation for the developmental biology community, and will contribute more broadly to human and animal health by the treatment and cure of genetic disease.
McGrail serves on multiple editorial boards and grant review panels at the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere. She is an internationally recognized leader on cutting-edge gene editing approaches, as evidenced by the demand for her expertise in the evaluation of competitive grant proposals. A colleague states, “Maura’s latest contributions to the zebrafish research community are nothing short of foundational, enabling next-generation sophistication in our interrogations of gene function.”