Maglott earned her Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Michigan where she worked on the 50S ribosome in the bacterium Escherichia coli.
and then moved to the American Type Culture Center in 1986 where she began establishing databases needed for genomic research.
[4] While at Howard University, Maglott worked on protein synthesis during early development of sea urchins.
[9][10] In 2000, Maglott worked with Kim D. Pruitt to introduce RefSeq, a web-based resource for gene-based information that is hosted by NCBI[11][12] and has been updated over the years.
[13][14] She has also been involved in the development of other databases at NCBI including Entrez Gene,[15][16] ClinVar,[17][18] STS markers, Conserved CoDing Sequences (CCDS), Map Viewer, RefSeqGene, the NIH Genetic Testing Registry (GTR), MedGen, and ClinVar.