Dr. Susan Slaugenhaupt is the inaugural scientific director at the Mass General Research Institute, a strategic initiative that will support the entire research enterprise at Massachusetts General Hospital to foster and sustain medical innovation. Dr. Slaugenhaupt’s research focuses on two neurological disorders, familial dysautonomia (FD) and mucolipidosis type IV (MLIV), as well as the common cardiac disorder mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Discoveries in Dr. Slaugenhaupt’s laboratory have led to the successful implementation of critical population screening for FD and MLIV, and to the development of a treatment for FD that directly targets the mRNA splicing mechanism. This exciting work has led to a clinical trial of the first therapeutic for FD, aimed at altering the molecular defect.
In addition to her extensive ground-breaking research, Dr. Slaugenhaupt is a professor in the department of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and a founding faculty member in the Center for Human Genetic Research. Dr. Slaugenhaupt spearheads several programs and educational initiatives at Massachusetts General Hospital, including a thriving undergraduate summer internship program. She also co-directs the Mass General Brigham Biobank at Massachusetts General Hospital, an exciting initiative that will speed the translation of research discoveries into improved clinical care for patients.