Samie Jaffrey

Dr. Samie Jaffrey is the Greenberg-Starr Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Weill Cornell Medicine. He received an M.D. and Ph.D. in 1999 from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he also conducted postdoctoral research.

Dr. Jaffrey’s work has fundamentally advanced our understanding of RNA biology and gene regulation. His lab developed genetically encoded fluorescent RNAs for imaging RNA localization and trafficking in live cells, including the Spinach-tagged RNAs. He has extended this technology to create a new class of genetically encoded biosensors composed of RNA that allows signaling molecules to be imaged in living cells. Most recently, he has helped to launch the field of “epitranscriptomics,” which relates to the diverse nucleotide modifications that impact the fate and function of mRNA and long noncoding RNAs in cells. Dr. Jaffrey’s transcriptome-wide mapping of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) in 2012 revealed that m6A is a pervasive modification in the transcriptome, thereby identifying this modification as a fundamentally novel form of post-transcriptional mRNA regulation. Since this seminal study, Dr. Jaffrey mapped dimethyladenosine (m6Am) and established functions of m6A and m6Am as well as m6A and m6Am reader, writer, and eraser proteins.

Dr. Jaffrey’s is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the recipient of the 2017 John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology, Klingenstein Neuroscience Award, Irma T. Hirschl Scholar Award, the McKnight Foundation Technology Development Award, NIH EUREKA Award, the NIH Director’s Transformative R01 Award, the 2013 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, and the 2014 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Young Investigator Award.