Dr. Selina S. Dwight is the Program Manager for the Grace Science Foundation. She joined in May 2015, inspired not only by the personal and scientific mission of curing NGLY1 Deficiency but by the passion and innovative approach of the Wilseys towards saving their daughter and others with this rare genetic disease and their vision to expand this model to other rare and common diseases.
Selina received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University in Chemistry and Biochemistry. She then earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in Biochemistry, studying the transcription of eukaryotic-like enhancers in E. coli. Following this, Selina pursued her Postdoctoral work with Dr. David Botstein, first at Genentech, and then at Stanford University. In 1993, she joined Dr. Botstein’s efforts to create the Saccharomyces Genome Database at Stanford University, working as a Senior Scientific Curator. During her 20-year tenure as a curator with the database, she was responsible for scientific content, assisted in the design and development of resources, and interfaced with the user community. In October 2014, Selina became a Senior Biocuration Scientist with the Clinical Genome Resource, a nationwide consortium whose mission it is to curate clinically relevant genes and variants. Her responsibilities include working with researchers, clinicians, genetic counselors and software developers in the design of curation interfaces and a data portal that allows patients, researchers and clinicians to access this information. She is based out of Stanford University in the lab of Dr. J. Michael Cherry.
Having worked on a model organism database and now a database dedicated to clinical genomics, Selina recognizes the power of model organism studies and bioinformatics in providing clues to the research and treatment of human disease.
