Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz received her B.A. from Swarthmore College, her M.S. in Biology from Stanford University, and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University. She did post-doctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Klausner and served as Chief of the Section on Organelle Biology in the Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at NIH until 2016. She is currently a group leader at Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, VA.

Lippincott-Schwartz's research uses live-cell imaging approaches to analyze the Spatio-temporal behavior and dynamic interactions of molecules and organelles in cells. Her group has pioneered the use of green fluorescent protein (GFP) technology for quantitative analysis and modeling of intracellular protein traffic and organelle biogenesis in live cells and embryos, providing novel insights into cell compartmentalization, protein trafficking, and organelle inheritance. Most recently, her research has focused on the development and use of photoactivatable fluorescent proteins, which ‘switch on in response to light. One application of these proteins she has put to use is photoactivated localization microscopy, (i.e., PALM), a superresolution imaging technique that enables visualization of molecule distributions at high density at the nano-scale.