Gaudenz Danuser

Gaudenz Danuser, Ph.D., was named Chair of the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics in June 2015. Before joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2014, Dr. Danuser directed research laboratories at ETH Zurich, The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and Harvard Medical School. Originally trained as an engineer, Dr. Danuser’s cell biology research now focuses on the question of how chemical and mechanical signals integrate into the regulation of cytoskeleton dynamics and membrane trafficking. With his appointment as a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute (CPRIT) Scholar, Dr. Danuser has redirected his research toward understanding how mechanical and chemical cell shape regulation impacts the migration and survival of the metastatic cell. To address these questions, his lab uses quantitative imaging methods to probe the processes and mathematical modeling to compile the data. Dr. Danuser received his advanced degree and Ph.D. from ETH Zurich in Switzerland in engineering and computer science, both with distinction.