Paul Trainor PhD

Paul Trainor, Ph.D., is regarded as a leader in the fields of craniofacial, neural crest cell, and developmental biology by his peers in the international scientific community. Growing up in Australia, as a University of Sydney undergrad, Trainor learned that genetic manipulation could produce fruit flies with too many wings or misplaced antennae. He’s been hooked on genetics and embryology ever since.

After graduating with his BS in genetics and biochemistry, Trainor did his Ph.D. thesis work in the lab of renowned embryologist Patrick Tam, Ph.D., at the Children’s Medical Research Institute of Sydney. There he became interested in how the vertebrate head and face are formed—the focus of his research today. Awarded a Ph.D. in 1996, Trainor moved to London to a postdoc at the National Institute of Medical Research with Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D. (now a Stowers investigator and scientific director emeritus). Krumlauf was a pioneer in how part of the brain, called the hindbrain, patterns facial structures, making his lab an ideal place for Trainor to launch his work. Trainor joined the Stowers Institute in 2001.

Paul is dedicated to his research, and living a well-rounded life is important to Trainor. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time traveling, swimming and cycling with his family, and playing water polo with a team in Kansas City. During the summer, he also participates in triathlons. Trainor encourages his team members to follow his example and take frequent breaks from the lab. Not a fan of the white lab coat photo, but his lab’s website features snapshots of his team in their favorite places, doing activities they love. Trainor explains that research is like reading a long and engrossing book – when you get to an end of a chapter, sometimes you need to put it down, take a break, and do something else fun for a while.