Prof Ruth Arkell

BSc (HI), PhD

Prof Ruth Arkell leads a research group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at The Australian National University (ANU) that studies how genome and environmental variation impacts embryonic development. Her science career began at the University of Sydney (BSc and Honours), before moving to the UK to undertake PhD and post-doctoral research and to establish a laboratory at the Mammalian Genetics Unit in Harwell, Oxfordshire, obtaining competitive Fellowships for all stages of her career. She was recruited to ANU’s Research School of Biological Sciences in 2006 and was awarded a Senior Viertel Medical Fellowship. In 2016 she moved within ANU to JCSMR. Throughout her career, she has pioneered the use of the mouse as a model for precision health; she was involved in the sequencing of the mouse genome, mutagenesis screens to identify models of human disease and the development of whole-genome phenotyping tools, including transcription profiling. Her laboratory studies the immediate post-implantation stage of embryonic development (called gastrulation). They seek to understand the genetic and embryological mechanisms by which abnormal gastrulation leads to congenital defects and the way maternal environment interacts with an embryo’s genetic make up to influence birth and life-long health outcomes.