Constance Joan Jeffery is an American biophysicist and an associate professor of biological sciences at the

University of Illinois Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. She was elected a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

in 2022. Jeffery is known for her work with multifunctional proteins.

Early life and career

Jeffery was drawn to science and math from a young age, with gene cloning in magazines like ''Time'' driving an interest in understanding how these discoveries could further scientific knowledge. Jeffery earned her Bachelor of Science degree from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1987 with initial lab experience in chemistry and immunology. She earned her Ph.D. in 1993 in Douglas Koshland's lab at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

where she worked on better understanding protein structure and function. Following her Ph.D., she was a postdoctoral fellow at

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

and

Tufts University School of Medicine The Tufts University School of Medicine is the medical school of Tufts University, a Private university, private research university in Massachusetts. It was established in 1893 and is located on the university's health sciences campus in down ...

. In 1999 she moved to the

, where she was promoted to associate professor in 2005.

Research

Jeffery applies several biochemical and biophysical techniques in her research including

x-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to Diffraction, diffract in specific directions. By measuring th ...

, ligand binding assays and catalytic activity assays. Jeffery is known for her work describing multi-functional proteins, which she termed

moonlighting proteins Protein moonlighting is a phenomenon by which a protein can perform more than one function. It is an example ogene sharing Ancestral moonlighting proteins originally possessed a single function but, through evolution, acquired additional funct ...

, which are proteins with a single polypeptide chain that have multiple functions. Jeffery has used

crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

to investigate proteins, and examined how multifunctional proteins can assist with treatments for cancer.

Selected publications

* * * *

Awards and honors

In 2022 Jeffrey was elected to join the 2021 class of fellows for the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her work with proteins.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffery, Constance Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Illinois Chicago faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American molecular biologists American women biophysicists American women molecular biologists Year of birth missing (living people)