Marisa S. Bartolomei BS, MS, PhD

Dr. Marisa S. Bartolomei received her BS in Biochemistry at the University of Maryland in 1982. She then obtained her PhD in 1987 in the Biochemistry, Cell & Molecular Biology program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Shirley Tilghman at Princeton University. In 1993, Dr. Bartolomei was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1999, and Professor in 2006. In 2006, Dr. Bartolomei received the Society for Women's Health Research Medtronics Prize for contributions to women's health.

Dr. Bartolomei participates extensively in graduate and medical education. Aside from her teaching activities, she is the Associate Director of an NIH-funded training grant program. She has served on numerous NIH-sponsored grant review panels and is a member the Human Molecular Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology editorial boards and the Science Board of Reviewing Editors. In 2006, Dr. Bartolomei organized Gordon Research Conference on Mammalian Gametogenesis and Embryogenesis, and she is co-chair of the 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Epigenetics.

Dr. Bartolomei’s research addresses the epigenetic mechanisms of genomic imprinting and X inactivation. Her lab is studying the processes by which parental alleles are distinguished in mammals and the mechanisms that lead to loss of imprinting in individuals with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome and Silver Russell Syndrome. She is also addressing the epigenetic consequences of various environmental perturbations to gametes and early embryos. Finally, she is involved in a collaboration that aims to reactivate MeCP2 from the inactive X chromosome in Rett’s Syndrome patients.