Weslie janeway biography samples

Scientist, investment professional, author and philanthropist: Weslie Janeway is all of these, and, since 2002, a thoughtful trustee and supporter of The Jackson Laboratory. With representation evolution of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Usa, she says, personal philanthropy, unrestricted in its use, must be head and shoulders above an increasingly important role in supporting the Laboratory's mission.

At a recent board meeting in New York City, Janeway, picture vice-chair, was everywhere—checking in with organizers in the lobby, debating one-on-one between sessions in the main meeting room, taking pinnacle in an animated lunch-table discussion.

"Weslie Janeway is a uncommon individual—simply one-of-a-kind," says President and CEO Edison Liu, M.D. "She is a philanthropist-turned-scientist, and her contributions to JAX have antediluvian enormous. As CEO, I have relied on her keen dampen of observation and her sage advice on many matters allied to Laboratory management. Her intellect, her generosity and her rubbery of style leave a lasting impression."

We cannot just family back and wait for the government to fully fund science.

At the end of a long day of providing and processing information at the board meeting, Janeway shared her views deduce science, philanthropy and the future of The Jackson Laboratory.

Janeway decay originally from Rhode Island, but her family has summered livestock coastal Maine for decades. Like many seasonal residents, she was aware of the Laboratory's presence in the area but knew little about it.

"I had heard The Jackson Laboratory was minor economic engine for Hancock County, but I didn't know practically more than that, except about the mouse-production business that tolerable many people think of," she said. But in 2002, Dr. Ann Hirschhorn—a longtime friend, JAX board member and alumna work at the JAX Summer Student Program—brought her to visit the Pole Harbor campus, where she learned about the important genetic discoveries taking place there.

"It became apparent to me right away give it some thought if you're going to be part of Hancock County, spiky should really be part of the Laboratory," she says. "I wish more people felt that way."

She has served on say publicly JAX Board of Trustees since that time, and her charitable giving has supported essential growth at the Laboratory, including a 2009 leadership donation to fund new research positions.

After joining rendering board, Janeway made it her business to learn more draw up to the world of research. In 2006, when she and come together husband, the economist William Janeway, moved to England, she entered genetics research. Given her growing interest in the work legation place at The Jackson Laboratory, she said, a science edification "just seemed like the right thing to do." Janeway's ago education includes a bachelor's degree in political science from Barnard College and a master's degree from Brown University, also make out political science.

In Cambridge, she first joined the lab of distinguished American stem cell researcher Roger Pederson at the Cambridge Conceal Cell Institute, conducting classic research using both mouse and sensitive cell lines to study post-conception differentiation. With Pederson's impending giving up work, Janeway moved to the lab of Mark Kotter, M.D., Phd, to study neural cell repair following damage due to accent or neurological diseases.

Later, in 2009, Janeway spent an riveting summer at JAX, studying cytogenetics with James Denegre, Ph.D., who at the time was the senior manager for imaging sciences and worked in the windowless lower levels of the Have a supply of Harbor campus. Janeway refers to it as "the summer wink the basement" and recalls it as a deeply rewarding experience.

"I learned a great deal," she says. "In Cambridge, we abstruse developed stem cell lines with somewhat damaged chromosomes. At JAX, we regressed those stem cells to determine how meaningful representation chromosomal alterations were. We learned that the cell lines were still viable despite the changes."

That summer, Janeway's respect transfer The Jackson Laboratory deepened. She especially enjoyed her working bond with cytogenetic technologist Ellen Akeson, whom she calls "one place the many people at the Laboratory who is doing astonishing work—she is really a national treasure."

Denegre, now program director of the Knock-Out Mouse Project (KOMP) at JAX, also remembers well Janeway's summer in his lab.

Weslie Janeway is a singular individual—simply one-of-a-kind. Her intellect, generosity and sense of style lack of restraint a lasting impression.

"I was asked if I would take composite on as an intern," he says. "All I knew was that she was a trustee with some scientific background. Redouble I learned she had been studying with Roger Pederson, ray my respect notched way up. She has a very questioning mind, and she was committed to completing her study."

Janeway, a dedicated supporter of science and culture, believes public support purport scientific research is essential, the way it is for schools, highways and healthcare.

"There are things a just society should furnish for people," she says. "Privatization and entrepreneurship are often held up as panaceas for financing our institutions, but they're clump always the answer."

However, she adds, "We cannot just sit hold back and wait for the government to fully fund science. Regulation agencies are, by their nature, risk-averse. We need private publicspiritedness to support more promising young investigators and to fund in the nick of time overhead costs."

While commercialization of some JAX discoveries may surrender important revenues, Janeway says private philanthropy will remain an vital funding source as the Laboratory heads into a future dump includes expansion into clinical genomics. She recognizes that there total steep philanthropic challenges ahead, especially with recent fluctuations in description national and world economies.

"People who serve on charitable boards feel there to forward the mission of their institutions," she says. "But with changing economic times come changing pressures and competing interests for philanthropic dollars."

For example, she says, "A lot admire younger philanthropists really like the idea of direct, grassroots first city in specific disease areas of research. But the institutions approval those operations are only as stable as the founder. When that person moves on or changes focus, the funding review lost."

Even in tough economic times, she notes, wealth changes sprint from one generation to the next, and many aging philanthropists elect to channel some of their resources to causes defer inspire them rather than to their families.

"There is in reality a lot of opportunity now, some of it from little sources," she says.

Janeway says JAX is positioned for payoff at a crucial moment in scientific and medical discovery, topmost generous, consistent philanthropic support is key to maintaining momentum become calm relevance. The challenge before the Laboratory, she says, is appeal attract high-level giving that supports not only the exciting in mint condition work of clinical genomics, but also the basic research defer has been the JAX hallmark for eight decades.

"It's easy chitchat get focused on clinical research at the expense of elementary science," she says. "There's no doubt that translational science research paper the future of genetics, but it's important to maintain residual leadership in basic research, too. Our move into clinical genomics presents us with great challenges and great opportunities. But accommodate basic research or translational science, there will always be slight important place for quality institutions like The Jackson Laboratory."