Mrs Jennifer Erasmus

Jennifer Erasmus joined the Cell-cell Adhesion Signalling group, within the National Heart and Lung Institute, as a Research Assistant in 2003.

Jenni graduated from Stellenbosch University with a distinction in B.Sc Honours degree in Wine Biotechnology.  After a Masters in Wine Biotechnology in the same university, she worked for Professor Anne Dranginnis at St John’s University in New York.

She completed her PhD studies in the lab in 2009, investigating the cytoskeletal arrangements driven by small GTPases in epithelial cells and the interplay between junction assembly and small GTPases. 

She has published 3 papers and one chapter in Methods in Enzymology and has recently awarded the Wellcome Trust Value in People award (VIP award).

Her current research interests are mechanisms of E-cadherin cell-cell contact assembly and activation of Rac driven by cell-cell contacts.