About
MONICA DUS is a tenured associate professor and the principal investigator of the Laboratory of Molecular Nutrition in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan. She is an affiliate of the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, the Michigan Obesity and Nutrition Research Center, and the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Ford School of Public Policy. Dus is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2023–2024 White House Fellow, and a 2024–2026 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine New Voices member.
At U-M, Dus leads a multidisciplinary, NIH- and NSF-funded laboratory investigating the interplay between food, genes, and physiology. She also teaches Molecular Genetics, Neuroscience, and Science Communication to ~500 undergraduates annually. Beyond the lab and classroom, she engages the public through writing, podcasts, and community events on personalized nutrition, genetics, and neuroscience.
Dus is deeply interested in the intersection between science and society, particularly in policy, national security, and competitiveness. From 2023 to 2024, she served as Special Assistant for Science, Education, and Force Resiliency (GS-14) to the 78th Secretary of the Navy. In this role, she contributed to the $50M cross-sector Michigan Maritime Initiative, the Department of the Navy Science and Technology Strategy and Board, the Naval Education Strategy, the Education for Seapower Advisory Board, and the Navy Integrative Resilience and Mental Health efforts, for which she received the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award. She also serves on the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Vision for American Science & Technology task force, working to strengthen the U.S. science and technology enterprise through cross-sector collaboration and strategic foresight.
Her scholarly and service work has been recognized with honors such as the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award, the NIH New Innovator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Sloan Research Fellowship, the Rita Allen Scholar Award, the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in Neuroscience, the Ajinomoto Young Investigator Award for Gustation Research, the Society for Neurogenetics and Behavior Early Career Award, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award. Dus’s research has been featured in over 80 academic talks across 12 countries and highlighted in major media outlets, including NPR, PBS, Bloomberg, Scientific American, Forbes, and Women’s Health.
Dus earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory School of Biological Sciences, where she studied RNA-based gene regulation, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU, investigating nutrient sensing mechanisms. She also conducted research at the California Institute of Technology Department of Biology, The University of Michigan Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the University of California Riverside Department of Microbiology.
Visit her lab website to learn more about her and the lab research, public service, and communication work.
