The department is delighted to announce the hiring of Dr. Rachel Belote, who will join us in the 2023/24 academic year as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Belote will join us from a postdoctoral position at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah where she used a combination of single cell phenotype and RNA sequencing to identify functionally and transcriptionally distinct subtypes of melanocytes, the pigment producing cells in human skin. Her most recent work identified that the transcriptional profile of specific subsets of melanocytes give rise to difference types of cutaneous melanomas, and defined patterns of dedifferentiation that predict response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with melanomas. Some of this work has been funded by a Melanoma Research Program Discovery grant from the Department of Defense, of which she is the PI. Dr. Belote also has a long-term commitment to mentorship, highlighted by her involvement as a mentor in the Cientifico Latino, Graduate Student Mentorship Initiative and the SF Build (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) programs. The Belote lab will use multi-disciplinary approaches to understand how melanocyte cellular and subcellular heterogeneity regulate organ function, with the long-term goals of identifying currently unknown melanocyte functions and developing novel interventions for patients with melanocyte-associated diseases. We are excited to welcome her to the Molecular Genetics community!