Heather Mefford hunts down unruly genes (she’s a human geneticist)

When she was a kid in Iowa, Heather didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up. She loved solving problems and adored science and math, and when she went to college, she majored in chemical engineering. Then she had an internship: it soon became clear to her that engineering was not the right career choice. So, after college, she moved to Seattle. Heather worked in a human genetics research lab for a year, and decided to apply to MD/PhD programs. She got in, the physician/researcher combo fitting her like a glove.Fast forward several years, and Heather Mefford, MD, PhD, is now a geneticist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She studies neurodevelopmental disorders and epilepsy in kids, and has made huge strides in decoding which genes cause many of these diseases. She's using mini brain organoids made from a patient's own skin cells to understand, and someday treat, some of these diseases. Read her new research in Science Translational Medicine here.