Nanette J. Pazdernik has devoted her career to the understanding of molecular biology and biotechnology, and then disseminating that knowledge by writing and teaching. She is a co-author of Biotechnology, 2nd edition and Molecular Biology, 3rd edition, with Dr. David P. Clark and Dr. Michelle McGehee. Both the second and third edition of Molecular Biology won a Texty award from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association. She has taught courses in General Biology, Genetics, as well as Anatomy and Physiology at Southwestern Illinois College, McKendree University, and Harris-Stowe University. She received her BA in Biology from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and her PhD in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Genetics from the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral thesis studied protein structure-function relationships. Following her degrees, she investigated the signal transduction pathways that control apoptosis and immunity at Indiana University School of Medicine. In a second post-doctoral position, she studied the various molecules that maintain the stem cell niche in the Department of Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. Currently, Dr. Pazdernik works in the biotech industry as a scientific writer.