Liliana Solnica-Krezel, Ph.D., Board Member

Lilianna (Lila) Solnica-Krezel, Ph.D., was raised in Poland and completed her undergraduate education and M.S. in molecular biology at the University of Warsaw. She obtained her Ph.D. in Oncology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. She carried out her postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. In 1996, she established her independent laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, where she became Professor of Biological Sciences in 2005, and later, the Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of Developmental Genetics and University Professor. Since 2010, Solnica-Krezel has been the Professor and Head of the Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, and a founding co-Director of the Washington University in St. Louis Center of Regenerative Medicine. She is a co-head of Morphogenesis Section of Faculty of 1000, serves on editorial boards of Developmental Biology, Development and Developmental Cell. She served/serves on the eLife Board of Reviewing Editors, the Scientific Board of the Zebrafish International Resource Center, Board of Scientific Counselors of the NICHD Intramural Program, and Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation among others. Solnica-Krezel’s research group is employing zebrafish and embryonic stem cells to study the genetic mechanisms underlying early embryonic development, and in particular the process of gastrulation during which the animal body plan is established. Dr. Solnica-Krezel has a long-term expertise in using the zebrafish model for functional annotation of vertebrate genes, having established methods of chemical mutagenesis and helped to coordinate the first large-scale genetic screens that netted thousands of mutations affecting various aspects of zebrafish development, from gastrulation through vascular, neural, craniofacial, eye and ear development. She also identified or generated mutations that model such human birth defects or diseases, such as holoprosencephaly, tuberous sclerosis complex or scoliosis. She has mentored or co-mentored many undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty who continued their education and many of whom advance their independent careers in academia. Lila received the 2019 Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Award from the European Zebrafish Society and is a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science. In 2019 Lila served as President of the Society for Developmental Biology, and currently is President of the International Zebrafish Society.