Halpern's research has focused on studying how differences are established between the right and left sides of the developing brain.[5] Her laboratory has performed screenings in order to identify the genes that control the asymmetry of the brain. The lab has also developed methods to perturb the laterality of larval and adult fish and developed methods to visualize the brains of altered and normal individuals.[3]
Early life and education
Marnie E. Halpern grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her family was of Jewish descent and left Europe after the Second World War. Her father was a doctor. His practice was located in their house and Halpern helped him from an early age.[1]
Halpern studied at McMaster University and worked as a research assistant at McMaster University Medical Center. She obtained her bachelor's degree in biology in 1981. Working with James R Smiley, she focused on herpes simplex gene regulation. She earned her master's degree in molecular biology in 1984.[1]
After meeting Charles Kimmel at a neuroscience conference, her interest in zebrafish (Danio rerio) expanded. She joined Kimmel's laboratory at the University of Oregon, and did postdoctoral research on no tail mutants from 1990 to 1994. She subsequently moved to the laboratory of Christiane Nusslein-Volhard in Germany.[1][6]
In 2019, Halpern became Chair of the Department of Molecular and Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.[7]
In 2021, she was named the Andrew Thomson, Jr., MD 1946 Professor at Dartmouth College.[8]
