Genetic Research: Administration

Dr. Lyle Best, Principal Investigator

Phone Extension: 1101
Email: lbest@utma.com
Office: Room 110
Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday

Dr. Best grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and graduated from high school there in 1966. His BS degree is in chemistry from University of North Dakota; and his MD degree is from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, 1974. He then moved with his wife and first son, Peter, to Minneapolis, MN, where he completed 3 years of family practice residency and where their daughter, Carmen, was born. After his residency he worked in a level I trauma center for 3 months before we moving to Rolette and beginning work at the Belcourt IHS hospital. His youngest son, Kevin, was born in 1979. While with IHS he provided family medical services, including delivering babies, taking care of fractures and heart attacks, and minor surgery, such as tubal ligations. For the last 4 years with IHS, he was stationed in Belcourt but was responsible for Maternal-Child Health consultation throughout the Aberdeen Area four states. When Dr. Best retired from IHS in 1998, Sue he and Sue moved up to Winnipeg, Canada, for a year so that he could work in the DNA diagnostic lab and also get further training in the genetics clinic there. When they returned to Rolette, he began his many part time jobs: teaching genetics at TMCC, seeing patients at the Dunseith Clinic, teaching residents in Minot, working with the Strong Heart Study research program in South Dakota, and looking after 15 cows and their calves at home.

Their children are all married now. Peter is in farm finance and lives with his wife in Dickinson, ND. Carmen and her husband have two children, 7 years and 15 months old. Carmen works for a consulting firm that evaluates energy conservation programs. Kevin and his wife live in Minneapolis; he is just starting his last year of medical school and beginning to interview for his residency in family practice. Dr. Best’s wife, Susan, is a math teacher and substitutes at various schools around the county.

He and Sue have very much enjoyed becoming a part of the community and our many friends here. His mother was born and raised just north of Rugby and my parents were friends of Louise and Angie Erdrich’s parents in Wahpeton; so they have always felt a special connection with this area.