A J’can scientist on the cutting edge of neurodegeneration research

NEW YORK, NY:

Jhodi Webster is a Jamaican neuroscientist on the front lines of neurodegeneration research. Raised in the Constant Spring area of St Andrew, she attended St. Andrew High School for Girls before pursuing her undergraduate studies at Agnes Scott College in the United States, a decision that would quietly change the course of her life.

She arrived at Agnes Scott as a pre-med student. She left as a scientist. A molecular biology course that let her design her own neuroscience experiments opened a door she had not known was there. Time in clinical settings confirmed what the lab had already told her: her place was at the bench, not the bedside.

The turning point came at her first Society for Neuroscience Conference, where she presented research on neuron morphology in models of schizophrenia and Rett syndrome. Surrounded by thousands of scientists who shared her obsession, she found her community. She dropped pre-med, declared neuroscience as her major, and completed a senior thesis on neuroinflammation in Schizophrenia and Rett Syndrome, a thread that would run through everything that followed.

Webster went on to earn her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she focused her expertise in neuroinflammation on understanding Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Recognised with scholarships and awards for her contributions, she recently defended her dissertation and secured a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Arizona, considered among the very best in the world. There, she is advancing translational immunotherapy approaches aimed at modifying the course of these devastating diseases.

Her goal is to lead her own independent research laboratory, mentor the next generation of scientists, including those coming up from Jamaica, and keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible in neurodegeneration research.