Jessica Amber JenningsDr. Jessica Amber Jennings is a biomedical engineering researcher with expertise in wound healing, infection prevention, drug delivery, biomaterials, and biocompatibility. Her research has explored the effects of electric fields, biomaterials, and grwth factors on cells during tissue healing and regeneration. Further, she has designed biomaterials to inhibit attachment of biofilm-forming bacteria to biomaterial surfaces to prevent infection. She has extensive experience in developing and testing composite materials incorporating the degradable biopolymer chitosan as a component, including coatings, films, microbeads, and lyophilized constructs. Her work includes engineering chitosan biomaterials for functionality in tissue regeneration, drug delivery, and infection prevention. She has authored or co-authored over 15 journal articles, one book chapter, 3 patent disclosures, and over 60 presentations and invited lectures. She has served as principle investigator or collaborator on several funded research projects from the Department of Defense, FedEx Institute of Technology, as well as foundation and industrial sponsors. She has mentored more than 10 undergraduate and graduate students in supervised research, several of which have won university research awards and fellowships. She is an active member in several professional organizations, including the Society for Biomaterials, Orthopaedic Research Society, and the Council for Undergraduate Research. She serves as an Early Career Reviewer for the NIH as well as panelist for the National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship and several other university and industrial proposals. She obtained her BS degree in Biomedical Science at The University of Alabama, and received the Presidential Scholarship as a National Merit Scholar. She completed her MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, receiving a Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) fellowship. Her postdoctoral research was conducted in the lab of Warren Haggard, PhD at the University of Memphis from 2007-2010. Currently she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis in the Biomedical Engineering Department of the Herff College of Engineering (2010-present). Read More Read Less