Maria Lalioti, PhD

Dr. Maria D Lalioti is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Yale School of Medicine. She is a human molecular geneticist with a strong interest in personalized medicine and ethical use of genomic information. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Athens, Greece and her PhD in Human Molecular Genetics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She did her postdoctoral training in Biochemistry at the University of Birmingham, UK and in Genetics / Nephrology at Yale School of Medicine. During her postdoctoral training, she was awarded the prestigious EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) and HFSP (Human Frontier Science Program) fellowships. Upon completion of her postdoc, she was recruited to join the Yale Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility as an Assistant Professor, where she set up and directed the Preimplantation Genetics program and a laboratory doing translational research.

At Yale, her research focused on the genetics of reproductive disorders and the functional consequences of gene variants on ovarian function including response to ovarian stimulation. She has published extensively in high impact journals. She is the recipient of multiple awards for research excellence, including awards for basic and preclinical research from the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), the Nature Genetics Journal, the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) and the Pfizer foundation.

After Yale, she has held positions of increasing responsibility in Biotech companies (Biogen, Goldfinch Bio, and Beam Tx) specializing in drug target discovery and portfolio strategy in therapeutic areas of expertise (renal, reproductive, metabolic, neurodenerative, and orphan diseases), and supported programs using diverse modalities including novel ones such as gene therapy and gene editing. She is an advisor of several biotech companies and she is interested in leveraging genomic discoveries for drug development.

Dr Lalioti is very involved with American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), where she is a member of the Career Development Committee and co-organizer of the Society’s mentoring programs. She is an Associate editor for Molecular Human Reproduction (MHR) and serves as an abstract reviewer for ESHRE and ASHG congresses. She also serves at the Board of Directors of WEST (Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology). She is a mentor with WEST and other professional organizations where she helps women scientists reach their full potential. She co-teaches the Yale Biology of Reproduction undergraduate course and mentors undergraduate students.