In 2007, her laboratory showed that much of the variation in body size of domestic dogs is due to sequence changes in a single gene encoding a growth-promoting protein.

She is also affiliated as a mentor in the human genetics pre-doctoral training program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Her professional academic responsibilities continue to include a number of leadership roles in planning, research, peer review, and tenure and promotion efforts at a number of scientific institutions, including NHGRI; The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine;[10] and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.

This will aid in an international effort to use the dog system as a model for genetics and genomics, with a special application to cancer research.

Using this information, scientists hope to improve animal health while achieving a greater understanding of the genetic variants associated with human diseases.

[9] Using this large and now public data set, the Ostrander lab seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying patterns of genetic information that occurs between different breeds of dogs, in both healthy and disease states.

[12] Ostrander leads an international team of researchers, technicians, veterinarians, population geneticists, molecular biologists, statisticians, and computer scientists to accomplish her goals.

[12] Previous trainees from the lab have gone on to become professors at major educational institutions, entrepreneurs, teachers, and science policy experts.

Thus far, Ostrander's group has been able to map genes that regulate variations seen in body size, leg length, skull shape, and fur type across breeds, with many of these findings published in high-profile journals.

Recently, Ostrander has undertaken a large study aimed at understanding how the nearly 500 breeds which exist worldwide were each formed, and how they relate to one another.

She is the author of nearly 350 scientific publications that have been cited more than 18,000 times, including more than 1,200 citations to the 2005 paper she co-authored describing the genome sequence of the domestic dog.

Ostrander has also served in an advisory capacity on behalf of leading professional societies, journals, and other scientific efforts in the United States, Belgium, Sweden, and others.