February 2020

Happy Black History Month! This month isn't about individual stories of Black people. Rather, it is about how the history and experiences of Black people can help us understand the world just as much as the white and European stories that are the core of American curriculums. It is about revealing the presence of Black people in spaces and narratives that we tend to associate with white people.

This month we highlight Fortunate Chifamba (right) and Jessica Brooks (left), the first two graduate students in the Lipton Lab. While pursuing her master's degree in public health, Fortunate is studying the mechanism of a rare genetic variation known to cause a severe circadian disorder. Her work could help not only these patients, but others with milder disorders caused by this regulatory pathway.

Jess investigates the biophysical properties of the CLOCK protein, a component of the core circadian oscillator, and how those properties might explain the many ways the circadian rhythm impacts health. Her shirt is in tribute to her mother (who she stole it from, shh), a black woman whose career as a biologist spans MIT, Stanford, and NASA.