Jason Buenrostro named core institute member at ӳý

An expert in epigenetics and longtime member of the ӳý community, Buenrostro will focus on how life experiences can alter the epigenome and increase risk of disease.

Jason Buenrostro is standing in a lab smiling at camera.
Credit: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Jason Buenrostro studies how life experiences impact health and disease.

ӳý has appointed Jason Buenrostro as a core institute member. Buenrostro, a leading epigenomics researcher and technology developer, will also join the leadership team of the Epigenomics Program at ӳý. 

Buenrostro is a professor in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, and has been part of the ӳý community since 2016. He currently leads the Biology of Adversity Project and co-leads the Gene Regulation Observatory at ӳý. 

“Jason has been a member of the ӳý for almost a decade and has made many important contributions to our community and to the epigenetics field, including technological advances routinely used by many labs,” said Todd Golub, director of the ӳý. “We’re fortunate to have Jason and his lab be closely integrated with the ӳý community.”  

Buenrostro has pioneered the development of molecular tools to analyze the epigenome in single cells at scale, and has used both experimental and computational methods to reveal mechanisms of gene regulation. In 2023, he received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for developing methods and technologies that advance our understanding of how the cell regulates gene activity. 

As a core institute member, Buenrostro and his lab will seek to understand how cells change and adapt in response to life experiences, and how those cellular and epigenetic alterations affect health and disease.

Buenrostro earned a B.S. in general engineering and a B.S. in biology at Santa Clara University. He did his doctoral work at Stanford University in the Department of Genetics with William Greenleaf and Howard Chang. He was a ӳý Fellow and Harvard Society Junior Fellow before joining the faculty at Harvard University and becoming an institute member at ӳý.