BRCF Announces Retirement of TAMC Director Dr. Thomas Saunders

The Biomedical Research Core Facilities (BRCF) recently announced that Dr. Thomas Saunders, Director of the Transgenic Animal Model Core (TAMC) and Research Professor, Division of Genetic Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, will be retiring from the University of Michigan (U-M) effective June 30, 2022.

Dr. Saunders has been an essential member of the U-M research community for over 30 years and has been with the BRCF Transgenic Animal Model Core since its founding year, 1989. As the Core Director, Dr. Saunders focused his career on generating new mouse and rat models with genetic modifications that can serve as models of human genetic disease.

Under his leadership, the Transgenic Core has produced well over 30,000 transgenic models, including the introduction of a CRISPR/Cas9 pipeline in 2013 that is continuously updated with the latest CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

Throughout his career, Dr. Saunders became a co-founder of the International Society of Transgenic Technologies (ISTT), co-authored well over 100 publications, and contributed to more than 12 books, including editorship of “Advanced Protocols for Animal Transgenesis: An ISTT Manual.”

Thank you, Dr. Saunders, for 30 years of incredible contributions to the U-M research community and to the field of lab animal medicine.