Jean Elise Schaffer is an American physician-scientist. She is a Senior Investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center,[1] where she also serves as Associate Research Director, and she is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.[2] Her work focuses on fundamental mechanisms of metabolic stress responses and the pathophysiology of diabetes complications.
Jean Elise Schaffer, MD | |
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Education | Harvard College (A.B.) Harvard Medical School (M.D.) Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Postdoctoral) |
Occupation | physician-scientist |
Website | https://www.schafferlab.org |
Education
editSchaffer completed an A.B. in biochemistry, phi beta kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard College.[3] As an undergraduate, she performed her thesis work with Richard I. Morimoto Ph.D. in the laboratory of Matthew Meselson, Ph.D. She earned an M.D., cum laude from Harvard Medical School.[4] Schaffer completed an internship and residence in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and clinical and research fellowship in cardiology at Beth Israel Hospital. She carried out postdoctoral training with Harvey Lodish, PhD at the Whitehead Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during which time she cloned the first member of the fatty acid transport protein family.[5]
Career
editIn 1995, Schaffer joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. She rose through the ranks and was appointed as the inaugural Virginia Minnich Distinguished Professor of Medicine.[6] In addition to leading a laboratory focused on metabolic disease research, she directed the NIDDK-funded Diabetes Research Center at Washington University from 2008-2019. Her laboratory discovered that disruption of specific small nucleolar RNAs protects against lipid-induced cell death and alters metabolism, work that has provided a new understanding of how nutrient signals influence cellular homeostasis through non-coding RNAs.[7] Schaffer’s contributions to the fields of lipid metabolism and metabolic stress have been recognized by American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association of American Physicians and American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.[8] In 2019, Schaffer was recruited to the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School [9][10]
Awards and honors
edit1993 Katz Basic Science Research Prize, American Heart Association
2003 American Society for Clinical investigation
2008 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2012 Association American of Physicians
2017 Harold Rifkin Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Archived 2020-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
2018 Robert P. Hebbel Award, University of Minnesota
2020 Avanti Award in Lipids, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
References
edit- ^ "Schaffer, Jean".
- ^ "Jean Schaffer | Harvard Catalyst Profiles | Harvard Catalyst".
- ^ Washington University Record, November 13, 2008. http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/record/1160
- ^ {Michel CI, Holley, CL, Scruggs BS, Sidhu, R, Brookheart RT, Listenberger LL, Behlke M, Ory DS, Schaffer JE. Small nucleolar RNAs, U32, U33, and U35 are critical mediators of metabolic stress. Cell Metab 2011, 14: 33-44. PMCID: PMC3138526.
- ^ Schaffer JE, Lodish HF. Expression cloning and characterization of a novel adipocyte long-chain fatty acid transport protein. Cell 1994, 79:427-436.
- ^ Washington University Record, November 13, 2008. http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/record/1160
- ^ Lee J, Harris AN, Holley CL, Mahadevan J, Pyles KD, Lavagnino Z, Scherer DE, Fujiwara H, Sidhu R, Zhang J, Huang SCC, Piston DW, Remedi MS, Urano F, Ory DS, Schaffer JE. Rpl13a small nucleolar RNAs regulate systemic glucose metabolism. J Clin Invest 2016, 126: 4616-4625. PMCID: PMC5127695
- ^ "Meet Jean Schaffer".
- ^ "Schaffer, Jean".
- ^ 7. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/potmsearch/detail/submission/6472448/Jean_Schaffer