Jennifer Veevers, PhD

My scientific career began at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in United Kingdom, where I obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences with Industrial Experience (2002-2006). During my BSc degree I laid the foundations of my scientific career during a 12 month industrial placement at Merck Sharp & Dohme Neuroscience Research Centre in Harlow, UK. It was here under the supervision of Dr. Ignacio Munoz-Sanjuan that I studied the effects of secreted factors on promoting the proliferation of neural stem cells.

Following a summer graduate research placement in the laboratory of Prof. Simon Luckman at the University of Manchester, UK, studying brain activity correlates of palatable meal entrainment, I joined the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research at the University of Manchester, UK, where I obtained my PhD (2006-2010) under the supervision of Prof. Cay Kielty. During my PhD degree I studied the role of cell-matrix interactions in mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) fate and showed that MSC migration is regulated by fibronectin through alpha5 beta1-integrin-mediated activation of platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR)-β and potentiation of growth factor signals. This work was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), UK.

At the beginning of 2011, I was thrilled to join the laboratory of Prof. Ju Chen as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), where my fascination in understanding stem cell biology continues. I am currently working to elucidate pathways required for specification, proliferation, and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into cardiac cell lineages. These studies will inform approaches for cardiac regenerative repair and will develop stem cell-based experimental models to study heart failure and other human cardiomyopathies.

Publication
Veevers-Lowe J, Ball SG, Shuttleworth A, Kielty CM. (2011) Mesenchymal stem cell migration is regulated by fibronectin through alpha5 beta1-integrin-mediated activation of PDGFR-β and potentiation of growth factor signals. J Cell Sci. 124: 1288-1300.

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Jennifer Veevers, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar on the hESC
and iPSC project.