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Jean Schaffer is the Ory Family Professor at Harvard Medical School and an expert in Biology, specifically focusing on metabolic stress responses linked to RNA biology. Her work investigates excess lipid accumulation in non-adipose tissues, its associated lipotoxicity, and the resulting cellular dysfunction and cell death linked to the pathogenesis of complications arising from diabetes and obesity. Schaffer aims to understand how environmental cues shape metabolic physiology, as well as to identify novel therapeutic targets for improving human metabolic fitness. Notable research efforts have included work on intronic small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) which play a role in upregulating mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and elucidating their mechanistic links to metabolic regulation. Her research seeks to determine metabolic phenotypic variability in humans associated with the expression of over 2000 snoRNAs found within the human genome. Furthermore, she has explored the impact of lysosomal RNase, RNASET2, on lipid-induced oxidative stress, aiming to pinpoint RNA targets and mechanisms involved in lysosomal degradation of these RNA structures.
Administered by the Division of Medical Sciences (DMS). GRE is not required and will not be considered for BBS, Immunology, and Neuroscience.