Jennifer Smith, PhD

Jennifer Smith, PhD, obtained her Bachelor of Science with Honors majoring in Human Physiology and Master’s in Molecular Biology at the University of Queensland, Australia before obtaining her PhD in Immunology at the Translational Research Institute, UQ-DI, Australia.  Her work focused on regulatory mechanisms for T cell responses in the skin, focusing on non-melanoma skin cancer treatments and skin microbial barrier regulation.  

Since joining the Anderson lab Jennifer’s research has focused on autoimmunity, particularly T1D.  Her focus is understanding how changes in antigen presentation in the thymus can shape the immune cell repertoire and ultimately alter disease progression.  Harnessing this information to create new antigen-specific immunotherapy options for patients.  She hopes to apply these findings to other autoimmune diseases and cancers models so that we can tune in the immune system to halt and prevent disease.