Joan Steitz, PhD
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About
Titles
Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Biography
As a college student in the 1960s, Joan Steitz never imagined herself as a top-flight scientist. Certainly, she was fascinated by science. She even assisted senior scientists in laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was befriended by James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, and at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. But when it came time to choose a career path, she had never seen a female professor or head of lab. So, she never aspired to such goals.
Today, Prof. Joan Steitz is one of leading scientists in her field. Steitz is best known for her pioneering work in RNA. She and her student Michael Lerner discovered and defined the function of small ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) in pre-messenger RNA—the earliest product of DNA transcription—and was the first to learn that these cellular complexes (snRNPs) play a key role in processing messenger RNA by excising noncoding regions and splicing together the resulting segments. Her breakthroughs into the previously mysterious splicing process have clarified the science behind the formation of proteins and other biological processes, including the intricate changes that occur as the immune system and brain develop. Steitz earned her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1967. After completing postdoctoral work in Cambridge, England, she joined the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale as an assistant professor and later became an associate and full professor, as well as chair of the department.
Appointments
Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
ProfessorPrimary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Biochemistry, Quantitative Biology, Biophysics and Structural Biology (BQBS)
- Center for RNA Science and Medicine
- Genomics, Genetics, and Epigenetics
- Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
- Molecular Virology
- Steitz Lab
- Virology Laboratories
- Yale Cancer Center
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
- Yale Stem Cell Center
- Yale Ventures
- Yale WRHR Advisory Committee
- Yale-UPR Integrated HIV Basic and Clinical Sciences Initiative
Education & Training
- PhD
- Harvard University (1967)
- BS
- Antioch College (1963)
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England
Research
Academic Achievements and Community Involvement
Links & Media
News
- August 22, 2022
A longstanding commitment to basic science
- May 11, 2022
Viruses and Cancer: How a 45-year Legacy of Collaboration Led to Discoveries about Epstein-Barr, SV40
- September 01, 2021
RNA Science at Yale Gets a Boost From Steitz Donation
- May 05, 2021
Steitz Receives Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for Her Pioneering RNA Work