Rudolf Jaenisch (born on April 22, 1942) is a professor of biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

Jaenisch has focused on creating genetically modified mice to study cancer, epigenetic reprogramming and neurological diseases.

Jaenisch has since shown therapeutic benefits of IPS cell-based treatment for sickle-cell anemia and Parkinson's disease in mice.

[8] However, in 2001, Jaenisch made a public case against human reproductive cloning, testifying before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee[9] and writing an editorial in Science magazine.

He returned to Germany in 1977 to become the head of the Department of Tumor Virology at the Heinrich Pette Institute at the University of Hamburg.