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Laurie Boyer earned her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She joined the Whitehead Institute as a postdoctoral fellow in the labs of Jaenisch and Young, where she pioneered the development of high-throughput platforms for genome-wide analysis of transcription factors and chromatin regulators in stem cells, thus opening the field of stem cell genomics. In 2007, Boyer joined the Department of Biology and in 2015 was appointed Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering. Her research focuses on investigating complex genetic circuits and proteins that coordinate at the molecular level to produce robust developmental outcomes, particularly in heart development and related congenital defects. The Boyer lab focuses on dissecting gene regulatory mechanisms that control lineage commitment in heart development, applying this knowledge to engineer cardiac tissues. Part of their work investigates the regulatory logic that programs tissue-specific gene expression in cardiac lineage commitment and develops tools that enable reprogramming in response to cardiac injury—opening new possibilities for stimulating adult cardiac regeneration. They are also developing 3D cardiac organoid models to study mammalian heart development in vitro, aiming to create robust platforms for phenotype, drug, and toxicology screening.