Cell scientist to watch – Janet Iwasa

ABSTRACTJanet Iwasa pursued her undergraduate degree in biology, with a double major in Asian studies, at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA. She then joined the lab of Dyche Mullins at University of California, San Francisco (USCF) for her PhD in cell biology, studying the dynamics of actin nucleation and filament assembly. Shortly after receiving her graduate degree, Janet also completed a course in 3D animation at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Los Angeles, California. In 2006, she moved back to Massachusetts to join the lab of Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, for her postdoctoral studies, focusing on biological animation. She was a lecturer in molecular visualisation at Harvard Medical School between 2008 and 2012, and then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2013, where she became an Assistant Research Professor in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Utah. Janet established her own laboratory at the University of Utah in 2018, where she and her group members create and develop molecular and cellular animations for various projects related to molecular and cell biology. In 2014, Janet was named a TED fellow and recognized as one of the ‘100 Leading Global Thinkers’ by Foreign Policy magazine.