Professor Susan Clark, PhD, FAA, FAHMS, is internationally recognized for her pioneering research in cancer epigenetics and epigenomics. She is currently NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Research Director, Epigenetics Laboratory, at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia.
The techniques Susan developed in the early 1990s and 2000s, including bisulphite single molecule methylation sequencing and bisulphite-based PCR methods, helped to revolutionize the impact of epigenetic research in embryonic development and human disease and led to commercialization of methylation tests for cancer management. Using the growing suite of epigenomic sequencing technologies and bioinformatic analyses, her laboratory has made ground-breaking discoveries relating to alterations of epigenomic patterns in cancer genomes, including the concept of long-range epigenetic deregulation spanning large-scale 3D domains associated with changes in replication timing and co-ordinate gene silencing and activation.
Susan was an inaugural member of the NIH steering committee that established the Epigenome Roadmap, a member of the management committee of the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) and on the advisory board of the European “BluePrint” IHEC consortium and led the formation and resided as long-standing president of the AEpiA (Australian Epigenetics Alliance).
During her career, Prof Clark has authored >140 peer-reviewed research articles, 30 reviews and 9 book chapters. Her publications have received >24,000 citations. She has received a number of National and International Awards including the German “Biochemisch Analytik Preis” for outstanding contribution for Methylation analysis (2004); Fellow of the World Technology Network for Biotechnology (2006), Australia’s "Top Ten" National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) Project Scientists (2009) and Rotary Award for Vocational Excellence (2012). In 2015 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy (FAA); in 2017 Ramaciotti Foundation National Medal of Excellence and in 2019 NSW Premiers Prize for Excellence in Medical Biological Sciences and in 2020 elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, (FAHMS).