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Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D.

Professor of Biology; Member, Whitehead Institute; Member, Institute of Medicine; National Medal of Science recipient, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Rudolf Jaenisch is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, MA. His research focuses on understanding epigenetic regulation of gene expression (the biological mechanisms that affect how genetic information is converted into cell structures but that don’t alter the genes in the process). He is a pioneer of genetic manipulation, stem cell biology, and disease modeling. His recent work has focused on understanding the mechanisms of induced pluripotency and the modeling of neurodegenerative disorders using human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Jaenisch received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Munich in 1967. Before coming to Whitehead, he was head of the Department of Tumor Virology at the Heinrich Pette Institute at the University of Hamburg. He has coauthored more than 375 research papers and has received numerous prizes and recognitions, including an appointment to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.

Related Research:

CIRCUITS: Impact of Genetic, Epigenetic and Cellular Variants on Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology Rudolf Jaenisch Joseph R. Ecker 2017-01-05 Modeling DNA Methylation Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Rudolf Jaenisch 2016-04-28

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
CIRCUITS: Impact of Genetic, Epigenetic and Cellular Variants on Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology 2016, 2018, 2019-2022

$1,842,500
Modeling DNA Methylation Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 2016, 2017

$300,000

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Murai, N., Mitalipova, M., & Jaenisch, R. Functional analysis of CX3CR1 in human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived microglia-like cells, European Journal of Neuroscience, September 14, 2020, Read More

Svoboda, D. S., Barrasa, M. I., Shu, J., Rietjens, R., Zhang, S., Mitalipova, M., Berube, P., Fu, D., Shultz, L. D., Bell, G. W., & Jaenisch, R. Human iPSC-derived microglia assume a primary microglia-like state after transplantation into the neonatal mouse brain, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, November 26, 2019, Read More

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