Maquat did
postdoctoral research at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research in Madison, Wisconsin. She then had a brief stint at
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in
Buffalo, New York before settling at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, where she now holds an endowed chair. Her research is focused on
mRNA decay and the molecular basis of human disease. Her research Specifically, she was the first to describe
nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, work that enabled the discovery of the
exon junction complex as a critical quality-control mechanism in the cell. She also described
Staufen-mediated mRNA decay, a competitive process to NMD, and
microRNA degradation. Her research began with
beta thalassemia as a model and expanded to other
hemoglobinopathies. She has also studied cell death in
breast cancer cells exposed to chemotherapy, and cellular differentiation in muscle cells. Maquat also founded the Graduate Women in Science program at the University of Rochester Medical School, which provides mentoring and support to women seeking graduate education in the sciences.
Elected fellowships/memberships • 2006
American Association for the Advancement of Science • 2006
American Academy of Arts and Sciences • 2011
National Academy of Sciences • 2018
National Academy of Medicine Awards and honors • 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award in Service from the International RNA Society • 2012–2013 Batsheva de Rothschild Fellow of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities • 2014 Athena Award for community involvement • 2014
William C. Rose Award • 2015
Canada Gairdner International Award • 2017 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science • 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award in Science from the International RNA Society • 2018
FASEB Excellence in Science Award. • 2018
Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, Rockefeller University, New York, NY • 2019 IUBMB Jubilee Lectureship • 2021
Wolf Prize in Medicine, Wolf Foundation, Israel • 2021 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts • 2023
Gruber Prize in Genetics • 2024
Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research • 2024
Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research == References ==