Georgia M. Dunston

Georgia M. Dunston, PhD, is Professor Emerita and former chair of the Department of Microbiology, Howard University College of Medicine; founding director of the National Human Genome Center (NHGC) at Howard University (HU), and former Director of Molecular Genetics in the NHGC. She was founder and director of the Human Immunogenetics Laboratory at HU and has published extensively on genetic variation in human major histocompatibility complex antigen system and other common markers of disease susceptibility in African Americans. She served on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; the Genetic Basis of Disease Review Committee for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences Review Committee on Human Genome Diversity Project. Her research on human genome variation in disease susceptibility and health disparities has been the vanguard of efforts at Howard University to build national and international research collaborations focusing on the genetics of diseases common in African Americans and other African Diaspora populations.