Jennifer Thomson , Ph.D.

jennifer_thomson@med.unc.edu

Psychology

Education

• UNC Chapel Hill
  Curriculum in Neurobiology

Mentors

• Donald Lysle, Ph.D.

Biography

My name is Jennifer Thomson (formerly Szczytkowski) and I am originally from Hamilton, NJ.  I fell in love with science at an early age and chose to attend Rider University to earn my BS in the field of Biopsychology.  I graduated summa cum laude in 2003 with baccalaureate honors and a minor in health administration.  During my time at Rider I conducted research in the laboratory of Dr. Jonathan Karp studying the interactions between psychological stress and the chemotherapeutic agent, cyclophosphamide, on the immune response to protein antigens in mice.  In addition, I served as a teaching assistant in the Biology department for two years and regularly volunteered as a tutor at a local community center.  During the summer between my junior and senior year I was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.  I spent the summer working in the immunology laboratory of Dr. Bice Perussia on a project to identify an extrathymic population of early differentiated, developing T cells.  Upon completion of my undergraduate degree I chose to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to continue my research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology under the direction of Dr. Donald Lysle.  My dissertation was focused on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the conditioned effects of opioid drugs on innate immunity.  I received a Ruth L. Kirschstein Pre-doctoral National Research Service Award (NRSA) to conduct these studies.  While a graduate student I served as both a teaching assistant and a course instructor for the Psychology department.  I love being able to share my passion for science with a classroom full of students.  I am excited to be part of the SPIRE program and look forward to actively pursuing a combined teaching and research career.