Chonnettia Jones

Education and career

Jones is a geneticist and developmental biologist. She was a Ruth L. Kirschstein research fellow at Emory University where she researched developmental neurobiology while completing a Ph.D. in biochemistry, cell and developmental biology. Jones' dissertation 2005 was titled Molecular and functional characterization of mini-me, a dominant modifier of hedgehog in Drosophila eye development. Her doctoral advisor was Kevin Moses.

Jones was a professor at American universities before managing the Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientific research program at the Janelia Research Campus. She joined Wellcome Trust in 2012 to evaluate the impact of their funded grants. In January 2016, Jones became the director of insight and analysis at Wellcome. In January 2020, Jones was announced as the vice president of research at the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in British Columbia effective on April 14, 2020. On May 9, 2022, she became the executive director of Addgene.