Dr. Jessica Osterhout
Assistant Professor University of Utah
Postdoctoral fellow Harvard University
PhD University of California, San Diego
When Dr. Jessica Osterhout was in high school, she thought her career path would be pretty straightforward: she loved biology, so she would obviously become a medical doctor. Little did she know, there was a vast array of options for career paths in science, and ultimately she found her niche in research. Throughout her journey in neuroscience, which ultimately led to her current position as an Assistant Professor of neurobiology at the University of Utah, Jessica has never forgotten how important it is to stay open to unexpected possibilities.
When she started her undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon as a pre-med major, Jessica figured it would help her medical school applications to do some research in addition to her classes. When she found a position in the lab of Dr. Chris Doe, a neuroscientist studying the development of the nervous system in fruit fly models, she jumped at the opportunity to apply because it was paid (albeit minimum wage). Like many undergraduates supporting themselves through university, Jessica needed the extra income. Paid undergraduate research positions like the one she found in the Doe lab help create a more equitable system instead of one in which only those who can afford to volunteer receive the advantage of lab experience. She was also thrilled to discover that science careers existed outside of medicine. “It dawned on me, these people were doing science as a job–as a career. This is really cool!”
Jessica worked in the Doe lab for three years, assisting students and postdocs to look for the genetic mechanisms underlying the renewal of neuroblasts, the cells that develop into neurons. However, when she decided she wanted to apply to PhD programs, she was discouraged when one of the grad students she was working with told her she wouldn't be accepted anywhere. In retrospect, she acknowledges that the student was likely trying to be honest and realistic with her so she would be prepared for how challenging applying for graduate school can be. Luckily, the student was wrong; Jessica got into several programs and ultimately chose to join the PhD program in Biology at UC San Diego. After a few rotations, Jessica found the right fit in the lab of Dr. Andrew Huberman, who was a brand new PI at the time. Jessica was his first graduate student, and because the lab was so small, she got lots of one-on-one mentorship and training in addition to being inspired by his infectious interest in science. The direct mentorship she received was a welcome change from her undergraduate experience, as Dr. Doe’s lab was large, and he didn't have much time to directly mentor undergraduate trainees.
In her thesis research, Jessica studied the development of the visual system. Specifically, she investigated how the axons of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) find their targets in the developing brain. She found two factors that play important roles: the timing of the RGC’s birth, and the coordination of the proteins that “glue” the RGC axons to their downstream targets. RGCs that are born in early developmental stages have axons that are more exploratory because the embryonic brain has few explicit anatomical boundaries, while later-born RGCs are forced to navigate more precisely. Also, two categories of proteins, cadherins and contactins, act as adhesion molecules, securing the RGC axons to their matched targets as the visual system continues to develop and grow.
Jessica thrived during her PhD and enjoyed the sense of intellectual and scientific freedom engendered by academic environments, so she decided to stick to it and pursue a postdoc position. However, an academic career was never the be-all and end-all for Jessica. She loved academic science but figured that, if it didn’t work out, she could also be very content in industry. Staying open-minded and not getting too invested in one outcome helped her cope with the inevitable twists and turns of a career in science. “I live life for a lot of reasons,” she says, including wanting a balanced family life that she can prioritize alongside a fulfilling career. By combining this relaxed attitude with her passion for science, Jessica was able to take some pressure off of the major transitions between career stages, like the transition from a PhD to a postdoc. This allowed her authentic interest in science to shine through in her interviews, including her interview with Dr. Catherine Dulac’s lab at Harvard. Even though her computer died right before her presentation to the lab, she was able to quickly adapt and give a chalk talk on the fly, impressing Dr. Dulac and landing the position.
In her postdoc research, Jessica wanted to move away from development to better understand adult neural circuits, especially for complex social behaviors. She chose to focus on the phenomenon of the “fever effect,” in which some children with autism spontaneously exhibit fewer outbursts and more prosocial behaviors when they are experiencing a fever. Jessica investigated this effect in mouse models so she could directly test her hypothesis about the link between fever-sensing neurons and the circuits supporting social behavior. Jessica found that when a mouse is injected with inflammatory bacterial membranes, the immune response is sensed by cells throughout the brain, including the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a region of the brain that maintains homeostasis, and Jessica was the first to discover that specific cells in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus sense and react to threats from foreign invaders (bacteria & viruses) by increasing body temperature and decreasing appetite. Destroying these specialized cells abolishes the fever response. Conversely, activating them using a specialized molecular tool called DREADDS induces a fever and anorexia, even without exposure to a pathogen. These experiments demonstrated how these cells are both necessary and sufficient to induce a fever. Research on how these immune-sensing cells might affect social behaviors in neurotypical mice and mouse models of autism is still ongoing in the Dulac Lab, and Jessica continues to stay involved with the project.
After finishing her postdoc at Harvard, Jessica wanted to continue working in illness models to study how immune responses affect neural circuit function and behaviors. Studying how the immune system changes the brain can help us understand how diseases like long COVID affect neural circuitry and behavior so we can develop more effective interventions. Now, in her own lab at the University of Utah, Jessica is studying how sickness affects the sensation of pain, like in the body aches people often experience during illness. Additionally, her lab is running large-scale experiments looking into how sickness affects gene expression in regions of the brain that are sensitive to immune responses, like the hypothalamus and the brain stem. There aren’t many neuroscientists studying how the brain reacts to immune responses in the periphery, so the field is wide open for Jessica and her nascent lab to get started.
With a brand new lab and a relatively unexplored research direction, Jessica is looking forward to accelerating her research program and continuing to support her trainees the way her mentors have supported her. Having experienced family difficulties during her own childhood, she is keenly aware that many young scientists face invisible barriers, but also that positive mentorship can go a long way to help them feel supported and give them the opportunity to succeed. Jessica draws inspiration for great mentorship from how Dr. Dulac supported her during her pregnancy in her postdoc—with paid maternity leave and additional research techs to keep her projects afloat. She also acknowledges how important it is to lead by example and tries to be transparent about working to maintain her mental health to avoid the chronic stress and burnout that is far too common in academia. By staying open to new possibilities and thinking on her feet, Jessica has set herself up for a successful career doing groundbreaking research–we’re excited to see where this journey takes her next!
Find out more about Jessica and her lab’s research here.
Listen to Meenakshi’s full interview with Jessica on November 3, 2023 below!
