Meet the Scientists

Sasan Jalili, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Interrogating the host immunity, microbiome and their interface using different engineering tools in the context of infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancer.

Ron Korstanje, Ph.D.

Professor, Evnin Family Chair

Studies the biology of aging and the genetic factors that influence how individuals age, with a particular focus on healthy aging, resilience and the relationship between aging and cancer.

Stefan Semrau, Ph.D.

NYSCF Senior Director, Computational Biology & Data Sciences

Dr. Semrau leads NYSCF’s computational biology team, where he develops and applies advanced tools to unravel the role of genetics in disease and improve the stem cell models of the various diseases we research.

Olga Anczukow-Camarda, Ph.D.

Professor

Investigates how alternative RNA splicing contributes to cancer with the goal of identifying novel clinical biomarkers and targets for precision medicine.

Laura Andres-Martin, Ph.D.

NYSCF Senior Research Investigator

Dr. Andres-Martin leads the NYSCF Women’s Reproductive Cancers Initiative and ovarian cancer research at NYSCF. She is an expert in adult stem cells and cancer biology.

Jeffrey Chuang, Ph.D.

Professor, Donald A. Roux Endowed Chair

Computational studies of cancer image and sequence data to improve treatment outcomes.

Jennifer Trowbridge, Ph.D.

Professor, The Dattels Family Chair

Researches regulation of stem cells in the blood in normal development, aging and leukemia transformation.

Matt Mahoney, Ph.D.

Principal Computational Scientist

Machine learning for complex trait analysis.

Daniel Paull, Ph.D.

Scientific Director, JAX-NYSCF and Vice President, Discovery & Platform Development

Leads JAX’s automated stem cell platform, advancing scalable discovery and collaboration.

Mark Adams, Ph.D.

Professor & Interim Scientific Director, The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine

Leads the research and clinical genome sequencing groups.

Doug Abbott

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Doug provides strategic leadership, direction and management for all financial and risk management activities.

Brendan Arbuckle

Chief Information Officer

Leads all aspects of IT across JAX with a focus on advancing scientific research through technology.

LuAnn Ballesteros

Vice President, External and Government Affairs

​Shapes legislative and policy agendas at federal, state and local levels.

Lon Cardon, Ph.D., FMedSci

President and CEO

Responsible for the Laboratory’s global vision, strategic direction, research and operations

Dana Carroll, J.D.

Vice President for Research Administration

Leads JAX’s research administration, strengthening infrastructure, advancing grants and partnerships, and promoting operational excellence, compliance, and research integrity across the organization.

Mary Dickinson, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer

Mary Dickinson, Ph.D. is the executive vice president and chief scientific officer at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX). She leads JAX’s research enterprise, overseeing scientific strategy and operations to build on JAX’s unique strengths in genetics and genomics. She is responsible for recruiting and retaining faculty, overseeing and seeding new initiatives and collaborations, and planning and executing the research capital budget.

Christine Lin Egli

Vice President, Advancement

Christine joined The Jackson Laboratory in 2025, bringing over two decades of experience in non-profit leadership and philanthropy. She most recently served as Chief Advancement Officer and Strategic Advisor to the President & CEO at The New York Stem Cell Foundation.

Dan Hoag

Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Responsible for ensuring that the Laboratory’s activities meet all legal requirements, including overseeing compliance and regulatory activities and facilitating commercial transactions, sponsored research agreements and JAX’s intellectual property matters.

Steve Holstein

Senior Vice President, External Affairs

Leads external affairs at JAX, aligning partnerships, policy, and engagement to accelerate scientific impact.

Mitchell Kennedy

Executive Vice President, JAX & President, JMCRS

Responsible for all functions and operational groups in JMCRS

Nadia Rosenthal, Ph.D., FMedSci, FAAHMS

Scientific Director and Professor, The Jackson Laboratory for Mammalian Genetics, the Maxine Groffsky Endowed Chair

Investigates the role of genetic variation and the immune system in tissue repair, focusing on cardiovascular and skeletal muscle disease

Jens Rueter, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer, JAX; Medical Director, MCGI

Since 2010, Dr. Rueter has practiced and continues to practice as a hematologist/oncologist at Northern Light Cancer Institute. He joined JAX in August 2016 to build and lead the Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative. After graduating from medical school in Berlin, Germany, Rueter completed his residency in internal medicine at Tulane University and fellowship training in hematology/oncology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Emily Schorer

Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff and Chief People Officer

Schorer serves as a strategic partner to the CEO and oversees growth initiatives, human resources, environmental health and safety services, inclusion and belonging, ombuds office and communications and marketing.

Aubrey Watkins

David Shaw Family Endowed Vice President of Corporate Development

Responsible for leading corporate development initiatives, including business opportunities, faculty innovation initiatives, connections with prospective partners and exploration of potential customers and business models to amplify JAX’s global presence.

Sarah Wojiski

Director, Education and External Programs

Focused on enhancing and expanding educational programming for high school and undergraduate student populations.

Charlie Wray, Ph.D.

Vice President for Education

Provides direction and strategic leadership for training programs for undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows at JAX and for educational offerings for young scientists, teachers, professors and healthcare professionals.

Valentina Fossati, Ph.D.

NYSCF Senior Research Investigator

Senior Research Investigator developing human iPSC-based CNS models to advance glial biology and disease research.

Gareth Howell, Ph.D.

Professor, Diana Davis Spencer Foundation Chair for Glaucoma Research

Applies genetics and genomics approaches to study age-related neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and glaucoma.

Mary Teena Joy, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

We are interested in targeting circuits in the brain for repair in neurological diseases such as stroke. With intersectional tools that employ large-scale recordings of neural activity, quantitative measurements of motor control and transcriptomics, we hope to determine how circuits that control motor actions reorganize in disease and use molecular information to identify therapeutic targets.

Kristen O'Connell, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Kristen O’Connell’s research program is focused on understanding the impact of diet, body weight and peripheral hormone signaling on neuronal excitability and plasticity in the hypothalamus and other brain regions associated with the regulation of food intake and body weight.

Madeleine Braun, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Vice President, Research Growth Initiatives

Responsible for planning and implementation of operations, administration, and partnerships in support of key strategic growth initiatives.

Cathleen Lutz, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Vice President, Rare Disease Translational Center, Professor, Evnin Family Chair

Directs the RDTC, empowering rare disease solutions through partnership, innovation, and scaled preclinical pipelines to deliver targeted therapies from lab to clinic swiftly and effectively.

Josephine Wesely, Ph.D.

NYSCF Senior Principal Scientist, Functional Genomics

Dr. Wesely leads the functional genomics team at NYSCF, where she oversees all of our projects involving gene editing.

Konstantinos Vanezis, Ph.D.

Scientific Investigator

Leads the design, development, and delivery of oligonucleotide therapeutics for rare genetic diseases.

Ewelina Bolcun-Filas, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

Researching meiosis, the mechanisms of DNA damage detection and repair during normal development of gametes, and implications for fertility of cancer patients after radiation and chemotherapy.

Elise Courtois, Ph.D.

Director, Single Cell Biology Lab and Assistant Professor

Investigates tools for single Cell and Spatial -omics research. Studies endometriosis etiology, pathobiology, and heterogeneity.