Rate My Professor Stuart Macdonald

Stuart J. Macdonald is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Kansas. He received his B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford in 1997 and his D.Phil. in Zoology from the same institution in 2000. He conducted postdoctoral research on the genetics of aging at University College London in 2001 and on quantitative genetics at the University of California, Irvine, until 2006, when he joined the KU faculty. In addition to his academic role, he serves as Director of the Kansas INBRE Data Science Core at KU-Lawrence, a member of the KU Center for Genomics, and one of the Principal Investigators for the IRACDA at KU Postdoctoral Training program.

His principal research interest lies in understanding the genetic basis of complex, polygenic trait variation, with a focus on Drosophila melanogaster. Employing systems genetics approaches that integrate experimental and computational tools, his laboratory uncovers pathways, genes, and variants contributing to traits such as responses to toxin exposure, including heavy metals, chemotherapeutics, and xenobiotics, as well as lifespan and behavior. A key resource developed by his group is the Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource (DSPR), comprising 1,600 inbred strains enabling high-resolution QTL mapping. Selected publications include "Genome-wide transcript profiles in aging and calorically restricted Drosophila melanogaster" (Pletcher et al., 2002, Current Biology), "Genetic dissection of a model complex trait using the Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource" (King et al., 2012, Genome Research), "Structural variants exhibit widespread allelic heterogeneity and shape variation in complex traits" (Chakraborty et al., 2019, Nature Communications), and recent works on copper stress responses and gene expression changes during aging (Everman & Macdonald, 2024; Hanson & Macdonald, 2025, G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics).