Jill Heemskerk, Ph.D.

Dr. Jill Heemskerk is a Program Director in the Technology Development Program. She is broadly interested in neurodegeneration research, with an emphasis on translating basic research findings to the clinic. Her program encourages the development of new therapies through drug screening, biological strategies and clinical trials. She earned her Ph.D.at the University of California in San Francisco, taking a molecular genetic approach to study cellular patterning of the Drosophila embryo. She did her postdoctoral work at Columbia University, focussed on cell interactions in the early development of the vertebrate nervous system.