Staff Editors

Sarah Jackson, Executive Editor, received her PhD in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for her research on the function of a cullin-based ubiquitin ligase complex in cell cycle progression. Under the guidance of Yue Xiong, she uncovered a critical role for this complex in the development of T and B lymphocytes using conditional knockout mice. Sarah was thrilled to join the JCI editorial team in March 2012.

Monika Desphande, Science Editor, received her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research dealt with using RNAi and morpholino to study signaling in ventral photoreceptors of the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus. Monika was thrilled to join the JCI editorial team in August 2017.

Corinne Williams, Science Editor, received her PhD in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Peggy Cotter, she focused her research on gene regulation and virulence in bacterial respiratory pathogens of the genus Bordetella. She then joined William Goldman’s lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied pathogenesis of the dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. Corinne was delighted to join the JCI editorial staff in July 2013.

Elyse Dankoski, Assistant Science Editor, received her PhD in neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a student in Mark Wightman’s lab, she studied how antidepressant medications alter the temporal dynamics of serotonin signaling in the intact brain. She went on to perform postdoctoral research at the University of Washington that focused on how stressful experiences interact with motivational systems that control behavior. Elyse joined the JCI editorial team in April 2016.

Ushma S. Neill, Editor at Large, obtained her PhD in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University studying pulmonary mechanics and used her Marshall Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellowship at Imperial College, London, to study vascular permeability. After 2 years as an editor at Nature Medicine, she joined the JCI in March 2003 as Executive Editor. In May 2012, Ushma became Director of the Office of the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.