Ruth Huttenhain

Ruth obtained her Ph.D. in Systems Biology from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she worked with Ruedi Aebersold, Ph.D, to develop a targeted proteomics strategy for sensitive and reproducible quantification of proteins across large sample cohorts. Supported by the Swiss National Science and the Human Frontiers Science Foundation, Ruth performed her postdoctoral work with Nevan Krogan, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). During her postdoc, Ruth studied protein network dynamics in the context of HIV infection. She also pioneered the first proteomics approach that can resolve protein interaction networks with temporal and spatial resolution. Applying this approach to study dynamics of protein networks engaged by ligand-activated GPCRs led to the discovery of a previously unrecognized ubiquitin network regulating opioid receptor function. After her postdoc Ruth continued at UCSF as an Assistant Adjunct Professor with a research focus on how GPCRs decode extracellular cues into dynamic and context-specific cellular signaling networks to elicit diverse physiologic responses, a research direction that she now further explores in her lab at Stanford. Her lab exploits quantitative proteomics to capture the spatiotemporal organization of GPCR signaling networks combined with functional genomics to study their impact on physiology. Ruth is the Chair of the Early Career Researcher Committee in the Human Proteome Organization. In this role Ruth advocates for the young generation of scientists in proteomics and has created numerous mentoring and training programs.