#NYCRNASymposium
Speakers
The program includes keynote lectures to be given by
Dr. Jeannie Lee and Dr. Samie Jaffrey.
Other speakers will be selected from submitted abstracts.
Jeannie Lee
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Title:
How Xist silences the X-chromosome
Jeannie T Lee is The Phillip A. Sharp Endowed Chair in Molecular Biology, Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and Vice Chair of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Lee specializes in the study of epigenetic regulation by long noncoding RNAs and uses X-chromosome inactivation as a model system. She is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, a Harrington Rare Disease Scholar of the Harrington Discovery Institute, a recipient of the Lurie Prize from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, an awardee of the Centennial Prize from the Genetics Society of America, the 2010 Molecular Biology Prize and the 2020 Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Lee was also named a Distinguished Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
From 2013-2018, she co-launched the Epigenetics Initiative at Harvard Medical School and served as its Co-Director. She received her A.B. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University, obtained M.D.-Ph.D degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and carried out postdoctoral work at the Whitehead Institute & MIT.
Samie Jaffrey
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Title:
How cell metabolism and disease are encoded into the transcriptome by RNA modifications
Dr. Samie Jaffrey is the Greenberg-Starr Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine.
His research established new areas of RNA biology, including epitranscriptomics, the study of RNA modifications that regulate gene expression, and fluorogenic RNAs, which allow RNA to be imaged and engineered in living cells. Dr. Jaffrey’s seminal 2012 study mapping N6-methyladenosine (m6A) across the transcriptome was a major advance triggering the modern study of mRNA modifications. His work showed that nucleotide modifications in mRNA and long noncoding RNAs control the fate and function of these RNAs in cells. He subsequently mapped N6,2′-O-dimethyladenosine (m6Am) and characterized the functions of m6A, m6Am, and other RNA modifications.
Dr. Jaffrey also developed tools to visualize and control RNA in living cells. His lab introduced Spinach and related fluorogenic RNAs, which allow RNA and RNA processing to be imaged in living. His lab also developed foundational methods for RNA aptamer evolution, RNA scaffolds that promote aptamer folding, and the Tornado system for expressing stable circular RNAs, which are major tools in RNA synthetic biology. Dr. Jaffrey is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
His honors include the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Young Investigator Award, the Klingenstein Fellowship Award in the Neurosciences, the Irma T. Hirschl Scholar Award, the McKnight Foundation Technology Development Award, the NIH EUREKA Award, the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, and the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists.