Blackwell is a native of Shaker Heights, Ohio and was educated as an undergraduate at Oberlin College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry in 1994.
[1][2][3] Nearing the end of her doctoral education in 1999, Blackwell gained an interest in biology and joined Stuart Schreiber's lab at Harvard University.
[5][2] Blackwell is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[6] and has received the Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award.
[1] Blackwell has written more than 130 academic journal papers, she is the co-author of "Identification of a Class of Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Sirtuin Family of NAD-dependent Deacetylases by Phenotypic Screening".
The Journal of Biological Chemistry., Blackwell, Helen E.; O'Leary, Daniel J.; Chatterjee, Arnab K.; Washenfelder, Rebecca A.; Bussmann, D. Andrew; Grubbs, Robert H. (2000).