Kristin K. Baldwin is an American

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

who is a professor at the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University. Her research focuses on using reprogrammed and

induced pluripotent stem cell Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka's lab in Kyoto, Japan, who showed in ...

s to identify mechanisms and therapies related to human genetic risk for neurologic and cardiovascular disease. Her lab also studies how disease and aging affect the genome; they have used cloning to produce the first complete genome sequence of a single neuron and helped assess the effect of aging on induced pluripotent stem cells that may be used for cell therapies. They also design bespoke neuronal cells in a dish to understand brain function and disease. Baldwin's earlier work included being the first to clone a mouse from a neuron and being one of three groups to first produce an entire mouse from a skin cell by generating induced pluripotent stem cells.

epigenetic In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "o ...

changes of the genome and the brain.

Early life and education

Baldwin was born and grew up in Ohio where she won the Razor-Baries prize in mathematics at Ohio State University while still a high school student. As a National Merit Scholar she completed a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and

Zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

with honors at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, Durham, NC. She completed her PhD in

Immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see there ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, CA in 1998.

Career and research

Baldwin was a Ph.D. student and Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellow in the Department of

Microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

and

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

, Stanford, CA, in the laboratory of

Mark M. Davis Mark Morris Davis (born 27 November 1952) ForMemRS is director and Avery Family Professor of Immunology in the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection at Stanford University. Education Davis was educated at Johns Hopkins University ...

. From 1998 to 2005 she was an associate research scientist / postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for

Neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

and Behavior, Howard Hughes Medical Institute,

Columbia University Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes C ...

, New York, NY. in the laboratory of

Richard Axel Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won hi ...

. Since 2006, she has been an assistant professor, associate professor and full professor at

Scripps Research Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...

. Baldwin returned to Columbia University in June, 2020 as a Professor of Genetics and Development and is remains an adjunct Professor at the Department of Neuroscience and Investigator, Dorris Neuroscience Center at Scripps Research and an adjunct professor at the

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

(UCSD) Department of Neuroscience. She is a member of Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Baldwin's recent research has used genome editing of induced pluripotent stem cells to decipher the function of the most expensive and impactful known risk locus for cardiovascular disease. Her lab also uses direct conversion of

fibroblast A fibroblast is a type of cell (biology), biological cell that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, produces the structural framework (Stroma (tissue), stroma) for animal Tissue (biology), tissues, and plays a critical role in wound ...

s to functional neurons or reprogramming of

s (iPSC) to neurons, and studies their gene expression to define neuronal subtypes in normal development and different diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, autism,

Friedreich's ataxia Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA or FA) is an autosomal-recessive genetic disease that causes difficulty walking, a loss of sensation in the arms and legs, and impaired speech that worsens over time. Symptoms generally start between 5 and 20 year ...

or addiction. Recently, her group also identified and characterized antibody libraries for de-differentiating cells.

Awards and honors

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Director's Pioneer Award (2016) *

Kavli Kavli () is a Norwegian brand of soft cheese, caviar, mayonnaise, crackers and milk. The company sells products in 30 countries, with plants in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, England and Scotland. In 1914, Olav Kavli founded Kavli Holding ...

Fellow and Session Chair, Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium (2012) * Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Faculty Scholar (2011) * California institute of regenerative medicine ( CIRM) New Faculty Awardee (2008) * Pew Scholar in the Biological Sciences (2007) * Whitehall Grant Award (2007)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Kristin Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists American women neuroscientists American neuroscientists Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Stanford University alumni Scripps Research faculty