Jennifer Simkin, PhD
Connect
(859) 218-7992jsi239@uky.edu
Positions
- Assistant Professor
College Unit(s)
Pronouns
she/her/hersBiography and Education
Biography
The Simkin lab studies how the body's inflammatory response helps injuries heal. We use comparative models of regeneration and scar formation to learn more about how we can regenerate tissues.
Education
Tulane University, PhD
University of Kentucky, Postdoctoral Scholar
Research
Why do we form a scar after some injuries and regenerate tissues after other injuries? The Simkin lab studies how the body's inflammatory response drives healing outcomes to improve tissue repair after injury. Specifically we look at how macrophages and other white blood cells talk to surrounding cells to drive healing and ask, can we make a macrophage that promotes a tissue regeneration?
Selected Publications
Simkin, Jennifer, Ajoy Aloysius, Mike Adam, Fatemeh Safaee, Ren茅e R. Donahue, Shishir Biswas, Zohaib Lakhani et al. "Tissue-resident macrophages specifically express Lactotransferrin and Vegfc during ear pinna regeneration in spiny mice." Developmental cell 59, no. 4 (2024): 496-516.
Gawriluk, Thomas R., Jennifer Simkin, Corin K. Hacker, John M. Kimani, Stephen G. Kiama, Vanessa O. Ezenwa, and Ashley W. Seifert. "Complex tissue regeneration in mammals is associated with reduced inflammatory cytokines and an influx of T cells." Frontiers in immunology 11 (2020): 1695.
Simkin, Jennifer, and Ashley W. Seifert. "Concise review: translating regenerative biology into clinically relevant therapies: are we on the right path?." Stem cells translational medicine 7, no. 2 (2018): 220-231.
Simkin, Jennifer, Mimi C. Sammarco, Luis Marrero, Lindsay A. Dawson, Mingquan Yan, Catherine Tucker, Alex Cammack, and Ken Muneoka. "Macrophages are required to coordinate mouse digit tip regeneration." Development 144, no. 21 (2017): 3907-3916.
Simkin, Jennifer, Thomas R. Gawriluk, John C. Gensel, and Ashley W. Seifert. "Macrophages are necessary for epimorphic regeneration in African spiny mice." elife 6 (2017): e24623.