Laurie A. Boyer

Laurie A. Boyer is an American biologist who is a Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the regulation of cell fate decisions and how faulty regulation leads to disease using human stem cells and mice as models.

Early life and education

Boyer is from Western Massachusetts. She became interested in science and biology while in high school. She was an undergraduate student at Framingham State University where she studied biomedical sciences. She earned her PhD at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, where she researched chromatin remodeling enzymes. Boyer was a postdoctoral researcher at the MIT Whitehead Institute.

Research and career

Boyer focuses on how cells make decisions early in development to give rise to tissues and organs and how faulty regulation leads to disease with a focus on the heart.

Awards and honors

• 2006 Scientific American World's 50 Top Leaders in Research, Business or Policy
• 2007 Framingham State University Honorary Doctorate
• 2008 Pew Scholars Award in the Biomedical Sciences
• 2009 Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Science
• 2012 Irvin and Helen Sizer Career Development Award
• 2013 American Heart Association Innovative Research Award

Selected publications

• Laurie A Boyer; Tong Ihn Lee; Megan F Cole; et al. (23 September 2005). "Core transcriptional regulatory circuitry in human embryonic stem cells". Cell. 122 (6): 947–56. doi:10.1016/J.CELL.2005.08.020. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 3006442. PMID 16153702. Wikidata Q24322016.
• Laurie A Boyer; Kathrin Plath; Julia Zeitlinger; et al. (19 April 2006). "Polycomb complexes repress developmental regulators in murine embryonic stem cells". Nature. 441 (7091): 349–353. doi:10.1038/NATURE04733. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 16625203. Wikidata Q29547274.
• Kundaje A; Meuleman W; Ernst J; et al. (19 February 2015). "Integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes". Nature. 518 (7539): 317–30. doi:10.1038/NATURE14248. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 4530010. PMID 25693563. Wikidata Q29615565.