Betty R. Lawton, PhD

Dr. Betty R. Lawton is a senior member of the Krause laboratory with expertise in pluripotent stem cell culture and differentiation, as well as cell and molecular biology. The predominant interest that has driven the direction of her scientific career is the regulation of gene expression. She came to the Krause laboratory from the University of Connecticut. Her graduate (Genetics, PhD) studies were focused on examining the regulation of gene expression at the Igf2/H19 locus in marsupials and live-bearing fishes. This region is genomically imprinted in mammals and critically important for normal development. The emergence of the Connecticut Stem Cell Initiative provided an opportunity to combine her scientific interests with the needs of patients for medical alternatives to incurable conditions. She was amongst the first group of trainees at UCONN in hESC when the initiative started. She performed post-doctoral studies focused differentiation of human embryonic stem cell to skeletal muscle. In addition to performing many aspects of laboratory management, Dr. Lawton performs multiple studies focused on parathyroid cell differentiation and function.