Rate My Professor Jennifer Mitchell

Jennifer Mitchell is Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell & Systems Biology at the University of Toronto. She earned a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, conducting her doctoral research on transcription factors regulating gene expression in the uterus during pregnancy at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute under Dr. Stephen Lye. Following her Ph.D., Mitchell pursued postdoctoral training at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK, with Dr. Peter Fraser, where she investigated genome organization regulating transcription in erythroid cells. She joined the faculty at the University of Toronto, progressing from assistant professor to associate professor, and now holds the position of full professor and department chair.

Mitchell's laboratory investigates how the genome functions within stem cells to regulate self-renewal and differentiation into specialized cell types. Her research emphasizes the three-dimensional organization of the nucleus, where DNA regulatory sequences such as enhancers form chromatin loops to control tissue-specific gene expression. Utilizing CRISPR genome editing, molecular biology, cellular imaging, genome-wide sequencing, and bioinformatics, her team has identified key enhancers activating stem cell genes, including a distal enhancer cluster for the Sox2 transcription factor required to maintain the embryonic stem cell state (Genes & Development, 2014). Other seminal works include demonstrations that enhancers and super-enhancers play equivalent roles in regulating embryonic stem cell genes (Genome Research, 2017), transcriptional control of parturition in the myometrium (Molecular Human Reproduction, 2021), and enhancer-gene rewiring in Quebec Platelet Disorder (Blood). Recent findings reveal redundant mechanisms preserving genome architecture and a developmental enhancer co-opted by cancers to drive oncogene expression and tumor growth. Mitchell's contributions extend to understanding DNA's role in individuality, disease predisposition, and potential CRISPR-based therapies for genetic disorders. She has received the CIHR New Investigator award and the Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty Award of Excellence in 2016.