Jeanne Lawrence PhD

Jeanne Lawrence is the Interim Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). After receiving an M.S. in Human Genetic Counseling she became intrigued by research into chromosomes and epigenetics, and thus earned her PhD in developmental biology from Brown University in 1982. She has been on the faculty of UMMS since 1985, where she also directs medical education in human genetics.

Jeanne Lawrence’s interests and background bridge the areas of human clinical genetics and developmental epigenetics in the regulation of chromosomes. Her lab has long developed approaches for visualizing single genes and RNAs within individual cells and has published extensively on compartmentalization of the mammalian cell nucleus, showing the cell-type specific organization of endogenous genes, RNAs, and proteins with specific nuclear sub-compartments.