Lee Lab

Jeannie Lee, M.D./Ph.D.
Department of Molecular Biology
Simches Research Center
Boston, MA 02114

Phone: (617) 726-5943
Fax: (617) 726-6893
Lab Website

Welcome to the laboratory of Jeannie Lee at Massachusetts General Hospital. Our team of staff scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and PhD students is interested in understanding some of the fundamental differences between the sexes.  We use state-of-the-art technologies in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and embryology to understand how one X-chromosome is turned off in the female but not in the male.

Our lab studies how male (XY) and female (XX) cells use a mechanism called X-chromosome inactivation to achieve equality of sex chromosome gene expression. Our studies are focused on three noncoding RNA loci whose actions coordinate the many steps of X-chromosome inactivation. We are also interested in the mechanistic and evolutionary relationship between X- inactivation and imprinting. Recent work by the Lee Lab suggests that imprinted X-chromosome inactivation is directly connected to meiotic sex chromosome inactivation in the male germ line.