Jenny graduated from the University of Aberdeen with a BSc(Hons) in pharmacology before completing her PhD researching the post-translational mechanisms regulating the activity of glutamate cysteine ligase (GCL) at the University of Dundee. Since her PhD she has continued and developed her interest in post-translation regulation of protein function and cellular adaptation to stress, completing post docs investigating: GCL function in ageing at the University of Dundee, post-translational regulation of p53 tumour suppressor signalling by Mdm2 and DAPK at the University of Edinburgh’s, Cancer Research Centre, IGMM, and activation of neutrophils by silver nanoparticles at Edinburgh Napier University.

In 2013, she was appointed as a Lecturer in Biomedical sciences at Edinburgh Napier University and in 2020 moved to take up a senior lectureship position at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh where she is involved in the preclinical teaching of undergraduate veterinary students and supervision of project and postgraduate students in the laboratory.

Her current research focuses on prostate cancer adaptation and plasticity in response to androgen deprivation stress and role of neuroendocrine transdifferentition as a mechanism of tumour resistance to therapy. She is also investigating the importance of exosomes in tumour adaptation and evolution in prostate cancer and is actively collaborating with researchers within the Roslin institute to achieve this. She also co-supervises postgraduate research students investigating hypoxic adaptation in models of stroke neurobiology and inflammatory bowel disease in collaboration with researchers at Edinburgh Napier Universty and the University of Leon, Spain.

I am interested in the molecular pathways that are activated as cells adapt to various forms of damage and stress and how these pathways become dysregulated in diseases. Currently, my lab is investigating the molecular mechanisms driving neuroendocrine transdifferentiation of prostate cancer as it adapts to resist anti-androgen therapies,particularly the powerful transcriptional mechanisms that are activated to drive the emergence of neuroendocrine castrate resistant prostate cancer. My lab is also investigating the potential role of extracellular vessicles (exosomes) in this process and their potential biomarkers to track its evolution.