Lynn Cooley

Lynn Cooley is the C.N.H. Long Professor of Genetics, professor of cell biology and of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology.  

She received her BA in Zoology from Connecticut College in 1976, and her earned her PhD from the University of Texas in 1984 for research on tRNA transcription and processing carried out with Sterling Professor Dieter Söll in Yale’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institution of Science where she established new methods using transposable elements for genetic and molecular analysis of genes in the fruit fly Drosophila model system.   

She started her own research program at the Yale University School of Medicine in 1989 with molecular analysis of two mutations slowing egg growth during oogenesis causing female sterility. This led to significant new insight into the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton in vivo. Cooley's current research is focused on the formation and function of intercellular bridges called ring canals that connect cells of the germline lineage as they form gametes. Similar ring canals are present in germline cells throughout the animal kingdom, and the Drosophila system provides an excellent model for investigating ring canal their biogenesis. 

She is also investigating the surprising discovery in her lab that many Drosophila mRNAs undergo stop codon readthrough resulting in the production of unexpectedly long proteins. Stop codon readthrough is particularly efficient in nerves of the central nervous system, suggesting the elongated proteins have new functions in the brain.

Cooley recently served as Vice President and then President of the Genetics Society of America. She is the recipient of a Pew Scholar Award, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.She is a member of the Board of Trustees at her alma mater, Connecticut College. She has published numerous scientific articles in the journals of several different scientific fields.   

Cooley served as the Director of Yale's Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) before being appointed as Dean of Yale Graduate School in 2014 and Vice Provost for Postdoctoral Affairs in 2021. Under Cooley’s leadership, the Graduate School has seen many notable expansions, including new PhD and master’s degree programs; new partnerships to advance multidisciplinary study; and enhanced student support resources. She also broadened key pipeline programs such as the Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship.