Holly Cukier, PhD

Dr. Cukier is a research assistant professor in the Departments of Neurology and Human Genetics at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, as well as the associate director for the Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Core at the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics. She is an alumna of the University of Miami, where she graduated with honors. Dr. Cukier received her doctoral degree in 2007 from Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, where she generated a novel fruit fly model of Rett syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum, and was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Cukier returned to the University of Miami and currently studies the genetics underlying autism spectrum disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Cukier studies families with these diseases, as well as examines minority populations for potential genetic differences. Furthermore, she is engaged in generating patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell lines to study the course of disease pathogenesis.