Jenifer Monks, PhD
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor
University of Colorado, School of Medicine
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Division of Reproductive Sciences
Research
I am a cell and developmental biologist at heart and am intensely interested in how individual cells regulate their function in the context of complex, physiological systems. Most notably, I have had a long-standing interest in the secretory mechanisms in the lactating mammary gland and in filling the knowledge gaps in this field using basic research methods and advanced microscopy techniques. I have been working to define the signaling pathways which are triggered by the removal of milk, and which are necessary for initiating milk secretion immediately post-partum. Current projects in the lab include the use of genetically modified mouse models with impaired milk fat globule secretion, teat-sealing experiments modeling the loss of milk removal in the context of a normal lactational hormone profile, and studies investigating the contribution of water transfer to milk production. Comparative studies of mouse and human milk are underway in collaboration with Dr. Jayne Martin Carli.
Capillaries filled with red blood cells (green) between alveoli outlined with myoepithelial cells (magenta) in a lactating mouse mammary gland.
Capillaries filled with red blood cells (green) between alveoli outlined with myoepithelial cells (magenta) in a lactating mouse mammary gland.
Training
Instructorship
2011-2018
Jim McManaman, OB-GYN
University of Colorado Anschutz
As an instructor with Dr. James (Jim) McManaman, Ph.D., I served as technical support on two NICHD-funded projects, performing most of the mouse breeding, handling, treatments and harvesting. I served on the IACUC committee and wrote the lab’s animal protocols. I also performed fractionation, immunostaining, imaging, proteomics analyses, etc. I was middle author for several manuscripts written by students in the laboratory and first author on manuscripts looking at offspring outcomes in obese dams, and the role of xanthine oxidoreductase in milk fat secretion
Instructorship
As an instructor with Dr. Richard M. Wright, Ph.D. I established and characterized a conditional knockout mouse model of xanthine dehydrogenase/oxidoreductase (XDH f/f) defeciency, a powerful tool for many diseases.
2009-2011
Richard M. Wright, Pulmonology
Webb Waring Institute
Postdoctoral Training
During my post-doctoral work at National Jewish Medical Center, I worked with a large group of investigators, Drs. Peter Henson, Ph.D., Valerie Fadok, Ph.D., D.V.M, and Donna Bratton, Ph.D. and their respective lab personnel, to understand how dying cells are cleared in the body, and why the immune system does not respond. I discovered that at the end of lactation, during weaning, when milk-secreting cells die by programmed cell death, they are engulfed and degraded by neighboring cells acting as amateur phagocytes. Our group termed this process “efferocytosis”, phagocytosis without activation of an immune response. This was the first demonstration that adult cells that are not of hematopoetic origin can perform this function within the mammary gland.
2000-2004
National Jewish Hospital, Denver, CO
Ph.D., Cell & Developmental Biology
1999
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO
I completed my thesis work under the mentorship of Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Neville, Ph.D. studying how substances are transported from the mother’s bloodstream to the neonate in the milk. Using mouse models, I showed that there is a nonspecific or fluid-phase transport system in the mammary gland, so that many molecules, and even large particles such as lipoproteins, are delivered to the offspring during lactation. This observation has significance for our understanding of the development of allergy or tolerance in the baby.
B.S., General Chemistry
1991
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
The Harvey Mudd curriculum includes the Common Core, a set of coordinated courses from every department—biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, math, physics and humanities, social sciences and the arts, with specific courses for the Chemistry major: physical chemistry, inorganic and organic chemistry, chemical analysis, Electromagnetic Theory and Optics, and Differential Equations. I completed summer research in Organic Chemistry with Dr. Phillip Myhre, Ph.D. and Biology with Dr. David Sadava, Ph.D.
