Nancy L. Craig

Nancy is widely regarded as a pioneer in the study of mobile genetic elements. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of transposable elements, or mobile sequences of DNA found in the genomes of most known organisms. She has directed a research group focused on identifying mobile elements and studied their mechanisms of action since 1992. A member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2010, she currently serves as Professor Emerita of Molecular Biology & Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Previously, Nancy was a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco in the Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and of Biochemistry & Biophysics. Nancy is the lead author of “Molecular Biology: Principles of Genome Function”, published by Oxford University Press and now in its third edition and also the editor of “Mobile DNA II” and “Mobile DNA III,” published by the American Society for Microbiology, and widely considered to be the definitive volumes on mobile genetic elements.

Nancy completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health with a focus on genomic integration, and she earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cornell University, during which her studies included mechanisms of DNA repair. Nancy also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Bryn Mawr College.