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Kristen W. Lynch: Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

caption:Kristen LynchKristen W. Lynch has been appointed as chair of the department of biochemistry and biophysics. She has served eight years as a tenured professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine, and holds a secondary appointment in the department of genetics. 

“Dr. Lynch has a broad vision of the future of biochemistry and biophysics at Penn,” said Jonathan A. Epstein, executive vice dean and chief scientific officer of Penn Medicine. “Her experience, talent and collaborative spirit will foster strong ties among investigators within the department, as well as across Penn Medicine and the University.”

While Dr. Lynch is considered an RNA biologist by specialty, her research expertise lies RNA’s intersection with immunology. Her laboratory focuses on understanding alternative gene splicing—which results in a single gene coding for multiple proteins—when it occurs in response to toxins and foreign substances such as bacteria, viruses and cells of transplanted organs. Dr. Lynch and her team have identified more than 500 genes that undergo this process following T cell stimulation and their studies provide new insights into the ability of the immune system to adapt to environmental factors.

Dr. Lynch graduated from Harvard University with a BA in 1990 and a doctorate in 1996, after which she pursued postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. She was an associate professor and the chair of the biological graduate program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center when she was recruited to join the Penn faculty as an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics in 2009.

Dr. Lynch has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in Molecular Cell, Genes and Development, Nature Microbiology, Genome Research, and other leading journals in her field and serves as an editor for Molecular and Cellular Biology. She has received several awards and honors in recognition of her scientific achievements, including a National Science Foundation Career Award. Dr. Lynch has served as a director of the RNA Society, an international scientific organization, and co-chaired multiple international meetings in the field of RNA processing. She is also the founding director of the campus-wide RNA Group, a central forum for investigators in and around Penn interested in RNA-related topics.

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