RESEARCH
Cryptococcus neoformans
Aspergillus fumigatus
LAB MEMBERS
Xiaorong Lin
Jennifer Jackson
Laura Higgins
Heeseon Choe
Bing Zhai
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Jennifer Jackson (left) Contact information Phone: 979-845-7259 |
Biography
Jenny Jackson is originally from Charleston, SC and moved to Texas in the heat of summer 2005. Jenny completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology from Franklin & Marshall College in the spring of 2004 and stayed an additional year to complete a second degree in Chemistry. In late 2007 she completed her Master of Science degree from the Biochemistry & Biophysics Department at Texas A&M University graduating with a cumulative GPA of a 3.8 as well as admission to the Pinnacle and Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Societies.
Jenny's undergraduate research at Franklin & Marshall College under the supervision of Dr. Ryan Mehl included the alteration of the active site residues of a nitroreductase from E. coli to better understand the activation mechanism of two prodrugs used in cancer therapy. This was accomplished by replacing the wild type active site residues with natural and unnatural amino acids. During this same time, she engineered a novel synthetase for the incorporation of p-trifluoromethylphenylalanine in vivo for use as a molecular probe in conjunction with 19F-NMR. In graduate school, Jenny focused on investigating the dynamics of protein structure related to the regulation and catalysis of tyrosine hydroxylase using fluorescence anisotropy in hopes to better understand how this enzyme plays a role in neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease.
Currently Jenny is working in the Biology Department at Texas A&M University as Dr. Xiaorong Lin's Research Assistant. She and Dr. Lin are currently working on understanding genetic contributions of virulence in Crypotococcus neoformans.
Publications:
Jackson J.C.; Higgins L.A.; and Lin X. Conidiation color mutants of Aspergillus fumigatus are highly pathogenic to the heterologous insect host Galleria mellonella. PLoS ONE, in press.
Jackson, J.C.; Hammill, J.T.; Mehl, R.A. 2007. Site-Specific Incorporation of a 19F-Amino Acid into Proteins as an NMR Probe for Characterizing Protein Structure and Reactivity. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 129, 1160-1166.
Hammill, J.T.; Miyake-Stoner S.; Hazen, J. L.; Jackson, J. C.; Mehl, R. A. 2007. Preparation of site-specific labeled fluorinated proteins for 19F-NMR structural characterization. Nature Protocols, 2:2601-2607.
Jackson, J.C.; Duffy, S.P.; Hess, K.R.; Mehl, R.A. 2006. Improving Nature's Enzyme Active Site with Genetically Encoded Unnatural Amino Acids. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 128, 11124-11127.