Jeanne M. Nerbonne BSc, PhD

Jeanne M. Nerbonne, Ph.D., is Alumni Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology and professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University. Nerbonne is an internationally recognized expert in cellular and molecular physiology. She is particularly well-known for developing multidisciplinary approaches to study the electrophysiological functioning of heart muscle cells and neurons and to identify the molecular mechanisms that underlie certain heart and neural disorders.

Nerbonne received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Framingham State College in Massachusetts in 1974 and her doctoral degree in physical and organic chemistry from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1978. Following postdoctoral training at California Institute of Technology, Nerbonne was a senior research fellow at the same institution. She joined the Washington University faculty in 1985 and became a full professor in 1997. In 2002, she was named Alumni Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology in that department (recently renamed the Department of Developmental Biology) and in 2006 also became professor of biomedical engineering.