Jenna Cash

Dr Jenna Cash graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a 1st class degree in Pharmacology (with Industrial Experience) in 2005. She was then awarded a 4-year British Heart Foundation DPhil studentship at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford University, with Professor David Greaves. Her DPhil research resulted in the discovery that a protein, chemerin, undergoes proteolytic processing by activated macrophages to generate peptides with dual anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving properties. Chemerin-derived peptides are under international patent and underwent clinical trials to treat skin inflammation.

On completion of her DPhil, Dr. Cash was awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship for 4 years, which she divided between Professor Mauro Perretti's lab (William Harvey Research Institute, London), Professor Paul Kubes lab (Calgary University, Canada) and Professor Paul Martin's lab (Bristol University). During this period she learnt specialised intravital microscopy techniques and developed a keen interest in wound healing, finding that chemerin peptide C15 can accelerate skin repair with reduced scarring and inhibit neutrophil integrin activation to reduce their recruitment to a site of inflammation.

Dr. Cash was subsequently awarded an Elizabeth Blackwell Early Career Research Fellowship by Bristol University/Wellcome ISSF before moving to the University of Edinburgh where she is now a Chancellor's Fellow at the Centre for Inflammation Research, Institute for Regeneration and Repair. She held a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust/Royal Society from 2016 to 2023, which established her lab within the Centre for Inflammation Research. Her research continues to focus on understanding wound healing mechanisms and developing novel therapeutic approaches for chronic wounds.