Dr. Lutz is Director of the Mouse Repository and the Rare and Orphan Disease Center at The Jackson Laboratory.  She has fiscal and managerial oversight of a growing collection of more than 8,500 unique strains, including over 1,700 live colonies for distribution to the scientific community.   As part of the Mouse Repository program, Dr. Lutz is the Principal investigator on a number of NIH sponsored resource grants, including the Mutant Mouse Regional and Research Center at JAX, The SMSR grant to support recombinant inbred  and Chromosome substitution panels, as well as the NICHD Cytogenetic Resource to support Down Syndrome related strains and research.   Dr. Lutz also serves as the Director of In Vivo Pharmacology and Efficacy Testing Program in Bar Harbor, which interfaces with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to pursue novel therapeutics across a variety of therapeutic areas.  

A neuroscientist by training, Dr. Lutz conducts research in neurodegenerative diseases, including Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), Friedreich’s ataxia, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemperal Lobe Dementia (FTD.    Her lab works closely with multiple disease foundations and researchers in the development, characterization and validation of mouse models that support their research and drug discovery goals.  These organizations include The ALS Association, The Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance, the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation, Cure SMA, and the Grace Science Foundation.