GMS Distinguished Alumni Awardee Spotlight: Jennifer Luebke, PhD’90
Waterhouse Professor and Chair of Anatomy & Neurobiology Jennifer Luebke, PhD, has served in many roles at BU, including as principal investigator of the Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology since 1996, vice-chair of anatomy & neurobiology, and director of the PhD and Vesalius Master’s Programs in Anatomy & Neurobiology. She has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Boston University Faculty Council, including as chair of the Sustainability Committee, and she was chair of the Supply Chain & Waste Working Group of BU’s Climate Action Plan Taskforce. She also has served on BU’s Council Committee on Graduate Academic Programs and Policies, and she currently serves on the medical school’s Faculty Appointment and Promotions Committee.
Luebke received her doctorate in anatomy & neurobiology from Boston University School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral training in neurophysiology at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine. She joined our community as an assistant professor of anatomy & neurobiology in 1996.
Can you please tell me a bit about your educational and professional background?
I did my undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at Randolph Macon College, and then, after two years as a lab technician, I entered the PhD Program in Anatomy at BU. After graduating with my PhD focused on neuroscience, I did a first postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and second at Tufts University School of Medicine. Both postdoctoral fellowships were primarily focused on neurophysiological questions: the first on the brainstem mechanisms of REM sleep generation and the second on calcium channel function. After my postdoctoral fellowship at Tufts, I came back to BU School of Medicine* as an Assistant Professor and started my own lab as a principal investigator.
*Editor’s Note: As of fall 2022, the medical school is named Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.
Can you please tell me a bit about your current role, research, and/or clinical work?
I am currently the Waterhouse Professor and Chair of Anatomy & Neurobiology at Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, where I direct the Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology. I will be stepping down as chair after six years to focus primarily on my research and other scholarly work this Fall semester.
My research is centered around understanding the normative structure and function of cortical neurons and their circuits and alterations to these properties in a rhesus monkey model of normal aging and in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Using whole-cell patch-clamp methods and ultra-high resolution confocal and electron microscopy, my group has demonstrated marked alterations in action potential firing patterns, synaptic response properties, and in dendrite, spine and synapse architecture in cortical pyramidal cells, both in normal aging and in mouse models of neurodegenerative disease. We have also demonstrated that neurons in functionally distinct neocortical areas in the monkey — that are also differentially vulnerable in aging and disease — differ markedly with regard to their signaling and morphological properties.
In addition to my own research, I am just beginning my role as associate director for the outstanding Center for Systems Neuroscience at BU and continuing to teach and help train the next generation of neuroscientist-educators in the department of Anatomy & Neurobiology.
What first drew you to BU as a student? Why did you decide to remain as faculty?
I was very interested in neuroscience, and I had identified the BU Program in Anatomy as having a very strong PhD program in this field. I was specifically attracted by the research of my eventual mentor, Linda Wright, on cell type specific signaling in the sympathetic nervous system. After five years away from BU during postdoctoral training, I returned to work with some of the great scientists I had known during my graduate training: Doug Rosene, PhD; Alan Peters, PhD, Deborah Vaughan, PhD, etc. I have remained as faculty ever since, ascending the academic ladder largely because of the fantastic collaborative scientific research, graduate training and educational environment that exist at BU, and in particular, in my department at the medical school: Anatomy & Neurobiology.
In the time that you have been at BU, how have you seen the institution evolve?
The institution has really grown in many, many ways during my almost 30 years at the school. Most relevant to me has been the growth of neuroscience at BU. We now have many exemplary leaders in the field (over 22 in my department alone) at BU, many of whom are also members of the Center for Systems Neuroscience. The development of the Kilachand Center, the Neurophotonics Center and many other centers of excellence in science has really been remarkable.
What is your favorite part about being a faculty member here?
There are many great things about being on the BU faculty. Primary for me is the collaborative nature of research and the access to the talent and skills of diverse neuroscientists across BU, from the undergraduate level to the full professor level. We have a rich and exciting research, learning and training environment at BU.
What does receiving the GMS Distinguished Alumni Award mean to you?
I’m very honored to receive this award, of course, particularly in light of the accomplishments and excellence of my fellow alumni. Receiving this award has given me the impetus to look back on my career accomplishments thus far and to think deeply about next steps as I move forward from an administrative leadership role to resume full focus on other scholarly activities, primary among these my research.