Jacqueline White, Ph.D., a scientific manager who has led large-scale laboratory animal operations in the United Kingdom, will direct The Jackson Laboratory’s (JAX) new Center for Biometric Analysis (CBA), now under construction on the institution’s Bar Harbor, Maine, headquarters campus.
The CBA, scheduled for completion at the end of 2017, will equip scientists with essential, cutting-edge tools for phenotyping laboratory mice — i.e., measuring a wide range of physical and behavioral characteristics — using high-powered imaging and analytical devices, with the goal of detecting extremely subtle signs of disease at the cellular level.
“It is an enormous privilege to have the opportunity to contribute to the outstanding science that the JAX delivers,” White says. “I am thrilled to be joining the team.”
White joins JAX from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, U.K., starting as a postdoctoral scientist in 2004 and rising to principal scientific manager of the Mouse Genetics Project. Her responsibilities included phenotypic characterization of 160 lines of mice per year, leading a multidisciplinary team in addition to coordinating collaborations with internal and external scientists.
“Dr. White will provide superlative leadership in the phenotyping of mouse models for our new CBA program,” says JAX Scientific Director for Mammalian Genetics and Professor Nadia Rosenthal, Ph.D., F.Med.Sci. “Her deep experience in mouse biology and core facility administration will ensure expert oversight of CBA infrastructure, staff and operations, including training, consultation on experimental design, study execution, data analysis and interpretation, and development and implementation of new platforms and technologies.”
White’s international profile in the field, Rosenthal says, “will put JAX at the forefront of this fast-moving research area, which is a critical component of present and future JAX disease modeling and discovery.”
White earned her Ph.D. from Darwin College, University of Cambridge, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Molecular Neurogenetics Unit of Harvard University at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Before joining the Sanger Institute, she held positions with Translocus Therapeutics at Babraham Institute and the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, both in Cambridge, U.K.
Construction of the $21 million, 21,000-square-foot CBA is the result of a public-private partnership with the state of Maine. The Jackson Laboratory will fund $11 million of the cost of the building, with the remaining $10 million provided by Maine state bond funding approved by voters in November 2015.