Jeannie T. Lee has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences is a private, non-profit organization “charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology.” Researchers are elected to the academy by their peers in recognition of their “outstanding contributions to research.”

Jeannie Lee studies how X-inactivation is used to achieve equal gene expression levels on the male and female sex chromosomes. “Her lab discovered Tsix, a key lncRNA involved in regulating X inactivation, discovered DNA elements key to this process, and has done important work in in elucidating the roles for the YY1 protein and the PRC2 complex in this process. The work coming out of Jeannie’s lab is directly relevant to human disease, including fragile X syndrome and Rett syndrome.”