Margit Burmeister

Margit Burmeister is an associate Chair and professor of computational medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Burmeister's work has focused primarily on the genetics of a neurological disorder, ataxia, and on the genetic and biological basis of psychiatric disorders and related personality traits, using large-scale genomics, rigorous statistical methods, and integrative approaches spanning molecular neuroscience, animal models, and human behavior. She is a recipient of the 1995 Klingenstein Fellowship Award as well as the recipient of the 1999 Humboldt Research Fellowship. and since 2025, she has been a founding member, angel investor, and genetics expert at Forum The Phoenix. and has focused on understanding how these genetic influences interact with environmental factors. She has used a range of genomic methods, including linkage analysis, next-generation sequencing, and computational bioinformatics, and has contributed towards discovering genes involved in conditions such as ataxia, seizures, addiction, and mood disorders.

A significant focus of Burmeister's research has been on how genetic variation modulates individual responses to environmental stressors, and addiction. She has contributed to studies on gene-environment interactions, exploring how specific genetic variants influence the risk of developing mental health conditions when coupled with stressful life experiences. Her work has highlighted that genetic predispositions do not act in isolation but may alter susceptibility to psychiatric outcomes in interaction with environmental contexts.

In addition to behavioral and psychiatric genetics, Burmeister's work has also focused on complex disease genetics and neurogenetics. Her work has emphasized the importance of integrating genetic data with environmental and developmental factors to better understand and potentially mitigate the risk for complex brain disorders.

Burmeister has also researched on the genetic basis of hereditary ataxias, focusing on the identification of disease-causing genes and mutations. Using human genetic and genomic approaches, her work on ataxia has contributed to the classification of ataxia subtypes and the diagnostic evaluation of affected families. 2018 – Alexander von Humboldt Award

Selected articles Cox, D. R., Burmeister, M., Price, E. R., Kim, S., & Myers, R. M. (1990). Radiation hybrid mapping: a somatic cell genetic method for constructing high-resolution maps of mammalian chromosomes. Science, 250(4978), 245-250. Bomar, J. M., Benke, P. J., Slattery, E. L., Puttagunta, R., Taylor, L. P., Seong, E.... & Burmeister, M. (2003). Mutations in a novel gene encoding a CRAL-TRIO domain cause human Cayman ataxia and ataxia/dystonia in the jittery mouse. Nature genetics, 35(3), 264-269. Sen, S., Burmeister, M., & Ghosh, D. (2004). Meta‐analysis of the association between a serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5‐HTTLPR) and anxiety‐related personality traits. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 127(1), 85-89. Karg, K., Burmeister, M., Shedden, K., & Sen, S. (2011). The serotonin transporter promoter variant (5-HTTLPR), stress, and depression meta-analysis revisited: evidence of genetic moderation. Archives of general psychiatry, 68(5), 444-454. Seong, E., Insolera, R., Dulovic, M., Kamsteeg, E. J., Trinh, J., Brüggemann, N.... & Burmeister, M. (2018). Mutations in VPS13D lead to a new recessive ataxia with spasticity and mitochondrial defects. Annals of neurology, 83(6), 1075-1088.