Tiffany Glass

Tiffany Glass targets basic and translational investigation of developmental voice, speech, oromotor, and swallowing disorders, with an overarching focus on Down syndrome (DS). Her broad investigational perspective spans genetic, molecular, cellular, anatomical, and murine behavioral oromotor research paradigms. She led some of the first work on oromotor, feeding and swallowing phenotype characterization of the Ts65Dn and Dp(16)1Yey mouse models of DS. Extending her work with mouse models of DS, Dr. Glass aims to better understand the biological processes underlying postnatal maturation of tongue muscle function, and determine how that maturation is impacted by DS.  She is also searching for the causes of swallowing phenotypes in mouse models of DS at adult ages. Ultimately, Dr. Glass intends to inform rational development of new therapeutics to ameliorate oromotor and deglutition disorders associated with DS.

Dr. Glass completed a BA in zoology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and an MA in medical and biological illustration at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. After a brief period as a medical illustrator, she completed a PhD in molecular, cellular, developmental biology and genetics at the University of Minnesota, where she used zebrafish models to investigate biological mechanisms permitting successful outcomes in hematopoietic cell transplant. She subsequently completed postdoctoral training with the UW-Madison Voice Research Training Program.