For her dissertation, she focused on axon guidance mechanisms during development. Her postdoctoral research was done at the University of Utah, where she investigated how cells determine their positional identity within the spinal cord, an important step necessary for neuronal differentiation and subsequent wiring of the nervous system. At Skidmore, Jennifer is focusing her research on understanding how individual neurons can navigate to their targets. She is using genetic and gene knock down technology to dissect the functional roles of individual axon guidance molecules. [email | web site]