Elissa Lei

I earned my bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology from The University of Texas at Austin and my Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School studying mRNA nuclear export.  I went on to perform postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University where I began studying regulatory mechanisms of chromatin organization and gene expression.  I started my own research lab at the National Institutes of Health in 2006 and have supervised a number of UMD Ph.D. students along with postdoctoral and postbaccalaureate fellows.  We utilize a variety of model organisms and both wet bench and computational approaches. The work performed in my laboratory will help determine how the 3-dimensional organization of DNA within each cell affects cellular function and identity throughout development.