Dr. Jannette M. Dufour is a University Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry in the School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Associate Director of the Obesity Research Institute. She received her PhD in Genetics and Cell Biology from Washington State University in 1999 and trained as a postdoctoral fellow with the Islet Transplantation Group in the Surgical Medical Research Institute, Department of Surgery at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada from 1999-2005.

The focus of her research is to explore the therapeutic potential of immune privileged Sertoli cells as a means to improve outcomes of transplantation. Specifically, her lab is testing the feasibility of using immune privileged Sertoli cells for cell-based gene therapy and examining the mechanism(s) of Sertoli cell immune protection in order to improve survival of insulin-expressing cells as a treatment for diabetes. Her research has been funded by several national and local agencies including the NIH, American Diabetes Association and Texas ARP and has been selected for the cover photo for Cell Transplantation (2008). Spermatogenesis (2012) and DNA and Cell Biology (2018) and highlighted in Biology of Reproduction (2014) and Nature Medicine (2018). She has been invited to give seminars at several universities as well as at national and international meetings, including American Society of Andrology (ASA; 2007, 2016), Society for the Study Reproduction; 2012, 2016), NIAID (2017) and NIEHS (2017). She has received the TTUHSC President's Young Investigator Award (2011), the Outstanding Women Leader (OWL) Award from the West Texas Association for Women in Science (2013), the Harry M. Weitlauf Anatomy Teaching Award (2013), the Dean's Basic Science Teaching Award (2017) and the President's Team Teaching Award (2019).