Claire M. Fraser

Claire M. Fraser-Liggett, Ph.D., is an American microbiologist and the current head of the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

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From 1998-2007 Dr. Fraser served as President and Director of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, MD. Dr. Fraser led the TIGR teams that sequenced the genomes of Mycoplasma genitalium, the spirochetes Treponema pallidum and Borrelia burgdorfei, and two species of Chlamydia. She is now overseeing several major research projects, including the genomic sequencing of Bacillus anthracis, and is a member of National Research Council committees on countering bioterrorism and on domestic animal genomics. She also has served on review committees of the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Fraser has published more than 160 articles in scientific journals and books. She has been a reviewer for nine scientific journals, currently serving a second term on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Before becoming TIGR's president in 1998, Dr. Fraser was the Institute's Vice President of Research and Director of its Microbial Genomics Department. She has received numerous academic and professional honors, including professorships in both microbiology and in pharmacology at George Washington University.

Education

Dr. Fraser received her B.S. Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1977 and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1981.