FLAG Researcher Spotlight: Jenni Palmer

Jenni Palmer

“the quality of the research in NZ is really something to be proud of and something that I want to be able to contribute back to in some form!”

Please tell us who you are, your institution and your title

Kia ora, ko Jenni tōku ingoa. I'm Jenni, I'm from Whangaparāoa (North of Auckland) and I'm now based at the University of Cambridge, UK where I am a PhD Student in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) and UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI).

Tell us a little about yourself, and your research interests. What is your PhD focusing on?

Like many of us working on neurodegenerative diseases, I became interested in neuroscience after my Grandma was diagnosed with dementia while I was at high school. I'm really interested in research where mechanistic cell biology and molecular biology intersect with neurodegeneration because I think it's a really important way of looking at what processes occur in neurodegenerative diseases and how we might be able to treat these. At the simplest level, I love finding out how cells work and how we can better protect brain cells and their functions during brain diseases. My PhD focuses on the role that a major Alzheimer's disease genetic risk factor has in autophagy, which is a process inside cells where damaged cellular components and toxic protein aggregates (such as Alzheimer’s-associated proteins tau and amyloid-beta, or Parkinson’s-associated protein alpha-synuclein, and many more) get recycled. As a side project, I’ve also been studying the function of Huntingtin, the gene associated with Huntington’s disease, in endosomal processes, which is how cells uptake things from their environment and recycle them back to the cell surface.

You started your neuroscience journey in Otago, NZ. Can you please tell us about the research you did in NZ and then the incredible journey from NZ to Cambridge?

I was in Steph Hughes' lab in the Department of Biochemistry and the Brain Health Research Centre (BHRC) at the University of Otago. This lab focuses on the intersection between lysosomal function (the terminal point of autophagy and also the endocytic pathway) and neurodegeneration. I did a summer project focusing on a protein that causes Batten disease, a childhood neurodegenerative disease, and then a BSc(hons) project focusing on how lysosomes move around within neurons. Then, I wanted to move overseas for a while to experience a different way of life and also to go somewhere where there are many more neurodegeneration researchers to get more of a feeling for how research operates on the international stage. I cold-emailed my now PI (David Rubinsztein) and a few other researchers whose research I was interested in, organised Zoom calls with them and chose this lab because of the emphasis on molecular mechanisms and because it is a big lab that aims to bridge the whole way from fundamental cell biology through to animal models and patients. I’m extremely grateful to the Rutherford Foundation and the Royal Society Te Apārangi, who made it possible for me to be here by funding my PhD!

Where would you like to see yourself in 5+ years? Do you see yourself coming back to NZ?

Hopefully I’ll be coming back home to Aotearoa eventually, although probably not in the next 5 years. I’m submitting my PhD later this year and want to do a short (~6 month) postdoc in my PhD lab to finish some papers, but after that I don’t have solid plans yet. Long-term I’d like to stay in neurodegeneration research but how I get there and what exactly that looks like is something I’m still working on! The biggest difference I’ve found with doing research in the UK vs NZ is that the UK has a greater volume of researchers and a greater speed due to resourcing. But, the quality of the research in NZ is really something to be proud of and something that I want to be able to contribute back to in some form!

What advice would you give to young researchers just starting out in the field? Do you have any tips regarding putting yourself out there/ networking?

I have always been a bit intimidated by networking because it seems so corporate, and I never really felt comfortable trying to force new connections or seeing myself as someone that people would want to network with. I felt like it required an etiquette that I didn’t know and pre-existing connections that I didn’t have, and I think those kind of feelings probably resonate with some other young researchers too! What worked for me was just being friendly and always eager to chat to anyone about science. Some fantastic connections have come out of helping out at outreach events, or the craft nights that we have in our institute, or over a puzzle table at a conference, and other situations where I feel more at ease. I guess my advice is to recognise that the most important network you probably have are your friends, labmates, and coursemates, and to focus on supporting each other and growing your network more organically by focusing on connecting with people at all career stages, not just the potentially intimidating senior people!  

If people want to contact you, how should they do so? Do you have any social media profiles people can follow?

I’m trying to move away from Twitter/X to BlueSky, and you can find me @JenniferEPalmer or @jenniferepalmer.bsky.social. I'm also reachable on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jenniferepalmer, but I am not very active on this platform.

Interviewed by Lily Bentall (PhD Candidate, University of Otago)