The Science of Connections: Bridging Chromatin Folding, Synaptic Plasticity, and Neurophysiology

Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins, PhD, is an associate professor and Deans’ Faculty Fellow in Engineering and Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, with primary appointments in the Departments of Genetics and Bioengineering. She obtained her PhD in biomedical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Andres Garcia, and conducted a multi-disciplinary postdoc in the laboratories of Job Dekker and Victor Corces.

Phillips-Cremins now runs the Laboratory of Chromatin and Spatial Neurobiology at UPenn. Her primary research interests lie in understanding the long-range chromatin architecture mechanisms that govern neural specification and synaptic plasticity in healthy neurons and how chromatin is dysregulated in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. She was selected as a 2014 New York Stem Cell Foundation Robertson Investigator, a 2015 Albert P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, a 2016 and 2018 Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, a 2015 NIH Director’s New Innovator Awardee, a 2020 NSF CAREER Awardee, a 2020 CZI Neurodegenerative Disease Pairs Awardee, the 2022 ISSCR Susan B. Lim Outstanding New Investigator Award, and a recipient of the 2021 NIH Pioneer Award.

Hosted by: Katie Pollard, PhD (GIDB), and Yadong Huang, PhD (GIND)