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Mary Gehring is a Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research focuses on plant epigenetics, specifically studying the heritable information that influences cellular function as encoded by the DNA sequence. Gehring's lab employs a range of genetic, genomic, computational, and synthetic approaches to answer fundamental questions about plant reproduction and seed biology. She has worked extensively with model systems such as Arabidopsis thaliana and has also explored applications in underutilized crops. Gehring began her scientific career at Williams College and obtained her PhD in Plant Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. Following this, she conducted postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center under Steven Henikoff. Gehring joined the Whitehead Institute in 2010 and was subsequently named the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Career Development Professor in 2011. In 2020, she received the Landon T. Clay Career Development Chair at the Whitehead Institute and was appointed as the inaugural David Baltimore Chair in Biomedical Research in 2023. She has also been recognized as an Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.