Judhajeet Ray, Ph.D.

Judhajeet Ray is a research scientist and the supervisor of the Human Gene Regulation Map (HGRM) team within the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He joined the Broad Institute in May 2021 as a research scientist in the HGRM team led by Jesse Engreitz, now at Stanford. Ray is trained as an RNA biochemist and his work involves the development and application of genomic technologies to understand gene regulation. The focus of his team is to apply CRISPR tools, single-cell assays, and functional genomics to build enhancer-gene maps in disease-relevant cell types.

Prior to joining the Broad Institute, Ray did his postdoctoral work with John Lis at Cornell University, where he investigated transcription-associated changes in chromatin organization of human and Drosophila cells. He has also developed RNA aptamer technologies for analysis of macromolecular complexes by mass spectrometry and sequencing, and for perturbing complex interactions to dissect mechanisms of transcriptional pausing. As a graduate student at Iowa State, Ray utilized RNA aptamers to develop a FRET-based method capable of imaging real-time changes in gene expression. In addition to performing research, Ray has been involved in mentoring graduate students and postdocs, which won him a teaching award while he was in graduate school.

Ray finished his postdoctoral work at Cornell University and earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Iowa State University. He also holds a M.Sc. in molecular biology and genetics and a B.Sc. in microbiology from University of Calcutta, India.