Draft:Jenny R. Lenkowski

Introduction

Dr. Jenny Lenkowski is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. She is known specifically for her research in developmental neurobiology, and she teaches several courses in molecular biology, biochemistry, and biological sciences at Goucher College. Her research, funded by a grant from the National Eye Institute, focuses on the TGFB signaling pathway and its role in neuronal development and regeneration, with a specific emphasis on studies involving zebrafish. A trailblazer in her field, Dr. Lenkowski bravely investigates how the zebrafish retina both develops and regenerates after exposure to intense light injury. She hopes to apply her findings to potential biomedical treatments.

At Goucher College, Dr. Jenny Lenkowski teaches introductory biology, cell biology, developmental biology, and neurobiology. Dr. Lenkowski also has a passion for mentorship, and she puts this into practice in her lab, where her students work on various projects regarding zebrafish. In addition to her roles at Goucher College, she works with the Society for Developmental Biology and the Association for Women in Science, highlighting her steadfast commitment to innovation in science and diversity in the psychology field.

Early Life and Education

Dr. Lenkowski grew up in New Hampshire where she spent a lot of her time outdoors and in nature. She largely attributes her time spent in nature as a child to her initial interest in biology because she was interested in the natural world around her. Until high school, she never considered STEM as a career path; however, in one of her high school biology classes she learned about genetics, specifically, genetic counseling, and gene inheritance, which piqued her interest and inspired her to continue to study biology. She graduated from Mount Anthony Union High School in 1997, where she then went to Brown University for undergrad. During her time at Brown she received a bachelor’s degree in Biology. Later, she completed her PhD in biology at Tufts in 2010, and her postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan, researching how the vertebrate retina regenerates using zebrafish.

Academic Career

Dr. Lenkowski is currently an associate professor and researcher at Goucher College in Baltimore. Before coming to Goucher, she taught in China and worked as a research technician at Tufts Medical School. She then went on and earned her Ph.D. in biology from Tufts University in 2010. At the University of Michigan, she earned a post-doctoral degree in which she studied how fish eyes can regrow, using zebrafish. Her work at Goucher focuses on how certain signals in the body may affect how nerves grow and heal in zebrafish. Dr. Lenkowski works with undergraduate students to study how a signaling pathway called TGFβ might affect how nerves develop and regrow in zebrafish. She also teaches biology and biochemistry courses at Goucher, such as introductory biology and cell biology. She has been awarded a three-year term as the Lilian Welsh endowed professorship in honor of Dr. Lilian Welsh who was an physician and full professor at Baltimore Women's College, later Goucher College.

Research Focus

Dr. Jenny Lenkowski has been involved in a multitude of research involving neural development and regeneration. Primarily, she focuses her research on the retina as she studies how retinal neurons develop using zebrafish. Zebrafish are crucial for these studies because the eggs laid in the water can be put on a petri dish and within a week look at their eyes under a microscope. Another large portion of research deals with retina regeneration, looking at how neurons regenerate after they are damaged. In order to conduct this research, her lab blinds the fish and they are able to explore how the neurons in the fish communicate with the eye to regenerate the nerves. She began working on the eye with the regeneration project she completed in her postdoctoral research. Dr. Jenny Lenkowski thought it was fascinating that fish could fix nerve damage and regenerate neurons because humans are unable to do this. Dr. Jenny Lenkowski runs her own lab called the Lenkowski Lab where her research specifically focuses on how the zebrafish retina develops and regenerates following intense light injury that destroys photoreceptor cells. Particularly, she is interested in the role of conserved molecular pathways in regulating the cell cycle in muller glial cells. Currently, the Lenkowski Lab is expanding previous research by exploring how TGFβ signaling regulates the cell cycle and differentiation in neural development and regeneration as previous research has shown that proper regulation of TGFβ signaling during retinal regeneration is critical in the zebrafish. She is optimistic that her research will inform the biomedical field and their research in hopes of advancing approaches to addressing nerve damage and those who suffer from degenerative neural diseases.

Publications

1. Cresiski R, Lenkowski JR. Using zebrafish in a developmental biology lab course to explore interactions between development and the environment.CourseSource. 2019 August. doi: 10.24918/cs.2020.20.

2. Lenkowski JR, Raymond PA. Müller glia: Stem cells for generation and regeneration of retinal neurons in teleost fish. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2014 May;40:94-123. doi: 10.1016/j.preteyeres.2013.12.007. Epub 2014 Jan 8. Review. PubMed PMID: 24412518; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3999222.

3. Lenkowski JR, Qin Z, Sifuentes CJ, Thummel R, Soto CM, Moens CB, Raymond PA. Retinal regeneration in adult zebrafish requires regulation of TGFβ signaling. Glia. 2013 Oct;61(10):1687-97. doi: 10.1002/glia.22549. Epub 2013 Aug 5. PubMed PMID: 23918319; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4127981.

4. Lenkowski JR, McLaughlin KA. Acute atrazine exposure disrupts matrix metalloproteinases and retinoid signaling during organ morphogenesis in Xenopus laevis. J Appl Toxicol. 2010 Aug;30(6):582-9. doi: 10.1002/jat.1529. PubMed PMID: 20809547.

5. Lenkowski JR, Sanchez-Bravo G, McLaughlin KA. Low concentrations of atrazine, glyphosate, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, and triadimefon exposures have diverse effects on Xenopus laevis organ morphogenesis. J Environ Sci (China). 2010;22(9):1305-8. doi: 10.1016/s1001-0742(09)60254-0. PubMed PMID: 21174958.

6. Lenkowski JR, Reed JM, Deininger L, McLaughlin KA. Perturbation of organogenesis by the herbicide atrazine in the amphibian Xenopus laevis.Environ Health Perspect. 2008 Feb;116(2):223-30. doi: 10.1289/ehp.10742. PubMed PMID: 18288322; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2235211.

7. Rubin BS, Lenkowski JR, Schaeberle CM, Vandenberg LN, Ronsheim PM, Soto AM. Evidence of altered brain sexual differentiation in mice exposed perinatally to low, environmentally relevant levels of bisphenol A.Endocrinology. 2006 Aug;147(8):3681-91. doi: 10.1210/en.2006-0189. Epub 2006 May 4. PubMed PMID: 16675520.

Awards and Honors

National Institutes of Health AREA Award “Regulation of the cell cycle and differentiation in the vertebrate retina by TGFβ signaling” (9/01/16 – 8/31/19)

Talks and Presentations

Poster presentations (undergraduate research students indicated with an asterisk):

Meir-Levi, D.* and J.R. Lenkowski (2014) Examining the cell cycle in retina development and regeneration in zebrafish. Landmark Research Conference, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA.  (2015) Understanding the effects of aging on the regenerative capacity of the zebrafish (Danio rerio) retina. Landmark Research Conference, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD.

Brandt, K.* and J.R. Lenkowski (2015) Studying the effects of TGFβ signaling during retinal development in the embryonic zebrafish (Danio rerio). Landmark Research Conference, Goucher College, & Mid-Atlantic Regional Zebrafish Meeting, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD.

Lenkowski, J.R. (2016) Redesigning an upper-level developmental biology lab course to incorporate zebrafish and morphometric analysis. Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology Meeting, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Brandt, K.*, G. Cooper*, M. Downey*, E. Ferreira*, M. Koropsak*, D. Meir-Levi*, J.R. Lenkowski (2016) Regulation of the cell cycle and cell fate by TGFβ signaling in larval and adult zebrafish. The Allied Genetics Conference, Orlando, FL.

Koropsak, M.*, E. Ferreira*, and J.R. Lenkowski (2016) Effects of TGFβ signaling on differentiation and proliferation in developing zebrafish retina. Landmark Research Conference, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA.

Cooper, G.* and J.R. Lenkowski Evaluating the effects of TGFβ signaling on glial scarring in the zebrafish (Danio rerio) retina. (2016) Landmark Research Conference, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA and (2017) Mid-Atlantic Regional Zebrafish Meeting, Carnegie Institute, Baltimore, MD.

Hannifin, E.* and J.R. Lenkowski (2017) Visualization of p57 as a cell cycle exit marker in progenitor cells of Danio rerio. Mid-Atlantic Regional Zebrafish Meeting, Carnegie Institute, Baltimore, MD.

Vogel, S.* and J.R. Lenkowski (2017) Effect of TGFβ signaling on progenitor proliferation and Müller glia differentiation in the developing zebrafish (Danio rerio) retina. Mid-Atlantic Regional Zebrafish Meeting, Carnegie Institute, Baltimore, MD.

Teaching and Mentoring

In addition to her research, Dr. Jenny Lenkowski is a professor at Goucher College. The courses she teaches include “BIO 102: Explorations in Biology II: Like in Context”, “BIO 210: Cell Biology and Biochemistry”, “BIO 378: Developmental Biology”, “BIO 420: Seminar in Neurobiology”, “BIO 490: Independent Research in Biological Science”, and “BIO 497: Capstone in Biological Science.” Of these classes, BIO 102, 210, and 378 all have lab portions, which she really enjoys because she is able to work with students regarding the questions they come up with, how they are going to get the data, design the experiment, as well as answer the research question at hand. To this point, the students are a crucial part of her lab as many of her students work in the lab alongside her helping facilitate research, which is very important to her students as it gives them valuable experiences of working in a lab and interacting with the material learned in class. Lenkowski knew that she wanted to be a professor; however, she was not ready to go to graduate school directly after undergrad. This left her with an amazing opportunity to do something that she would not have the ability to do later in life: teach English in China. For a year Lenkowski taught English conversation and writing at a technical school in Beijing, China where there were many engineering students. After her time teaching, she resumed her education path of attending graduate school. Dr. Lenkowski is a strong mentor as she has collaborated with countless undergraduate research students to work on poster presentations that range in a variety of topics, but mostly focussing on retinal neural development and regeneration in zebrafish.

Community Involvement

Dr. Lenkowski volunteers with STEMnet and the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education. Her role involves her being a STEM specialist in classrooms. Dr. Lenkowski has also served as an ad-hoc reviewer for several research journals.

In Goucher, Dr. Lenkowski has helped coordinate the viewing of the film "Picture a Scientist," a movie that highlights women's experiences in STEM. She worked with production to show the film to a couple hundred people and host a panel of women from Goucher who shared their personal experiences as women in STEM.

Academic and Professional Associations

• Society for Developmental Biology
• Association for Women in Science
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• International Zebrafish Society