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About Laura
Laura Burrack serves as Associate Professor of Biology and Chair of the Biology Department at Gustavus Adolphus College. She earned a B.A. from Macalester College and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University, where her doctoral research employed molecular biology, genetics, and cell biology approaches to identify and characterize host cell factors required for intracellular infection by the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes in the laboratory of Dr. Darren Higgins. Subsequently, Burrack conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Judith Berman in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development at the University of Minnesota, developing the yeast Candida albicans as a model system to investigate chromosome segregation mechanisms. Her postdoctoral work examined flexibility in centromere and kinetochore structures and their contributions to genome stability, drug resistance, and stress adaptation. Before arriving at Gustavus, she held a term-faculty position as Assistant Professor of Biology at Grinnell College for two years.
At Gustavus Adolphus College, Burrack teaches courses including Microbiology (BIO-360, BIO-218, BIO-244), Cancer Biology (BIO-354), Cell and Molecular Biology (BIO-250), Principles of Biology, and Biology Research (BIO-392), along with associated laboratories. Her research centers on the role of flexibility in chromosome segregation mechanisms, the evolutionary consequences in microorganisms under stress, and its use as a model for cancer cell fitness. She applies microbiology, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, and cell biology techniques with Candida albicans as the primary model. Burrack's publications include "Genome-wide RNAi screen for host factors required for intracellular bacterial infection" (Science, 2005; 349 citations), "Listeria monocytogenes regulates flagellar motility gene expression through MogR, a transcriptional repressor required for virulence" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2004; 297 citations), "Neocentromeres and epigenetically inherited features of centromeres" (Chromosome Research, 2012; 100 citations), "Epigenetically-inherited centromere and neocentromere DNA replicates earliest in S-phase" (PLoS Genetics, 2010; 99 citations), and "Flexibility of centromere and kinetochore structures" (Trends in Genetics, 2012; 77 citations), accumulating over 1,095 citations. She co-authored a PLoS Genetics article with student Erica Power on neocentromeres providing chromosome segregation accuracy. Burrack has served as Challenge Seminar Director and co-chair of the 2020 Nobel Conference "Cancer in the Age of Biotechnology."
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