Jackson Lab nabs $1.5M for distinguished chair

PHOTO / LESLIE BOWMAN Dr. Edison Liu, president and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory, in a 2012 file photo.

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Weslie Janeway, vice chair of the Jackson Laboratory’s board of trustees, has given the institution $1.5 million to create the Janeway Distinguished Chair.

The money ensures ongoing support for the faculty member named to hold the chair.

The gift brings the total number of endowed chairs at the lab to six. Endowed chairs are an important funding source, but also help the institution attract, keep and support scientists, according to the lab.

The scientist Jackson Lab President and CEO Edison Liu said Thursday he had named to the chair is Robert E. Braun, PhD. Braun is a leading reproductive biologist studying germline stem cells and how they develop into eggs and sperm. His lab also explores how germline stem cells balance self-renewal with differentiation, and how imbalances between the two can lead to problems ranging from tumor development to sterility. Braun can expand his research program now that he has the chair.

Janeway previously established the Pyewacket Fund to support postdoctoral fellows working in the labs of early-career faculty.

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