Hunter R. Underhill, MD, PhD

Dr. Underhill graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, then he obtained an M.D. from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. After an interesting diversion that included a General Surgery internship and two-years of Neurological Surgery residency training at the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. Underhill entered graduate school and obtained a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington. He then completed a residency in Clinical Medical Genetics at the University of Washington. After residency, he completed a post-doc in Tumor Biology at the University of Washington, which was supported by the NIH. He subsequently completed a fellowship in Clinical Biochemical Genetics at the University of Utah. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of the Utah in the Division of Medical Genetics. Dr. Underhill is board-certified in Medical Genetics and board-eligible in Clinical Biochemical Genetics. He has a special interest in inborn errors of metabolism, lysosomal storage disorders, and biochemical and genetic disorders that affect myelination. Dr. Underhill’s research interests include the development, translation, and application of advanced quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for studying diseases that affect white matter. He has an interest in the study of white matter in biochemical disorders, genetic disorders, brain tumors, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative conditions. He also has an interest in exploiting circulating tumor DNA for early and recurrent detection of solid tumors in both adult and pediatric patients. Dr. Underhill has a particular interest in research that integrates molecular research for genotyping with MRI for phenotyping to explore relationships between changes in DNA and tumor behavior and to broaden the understanding of mutational effects on development.