Jenna M Gregory

Professor Jenna Gregory (born 22 January 1984) BSc MSc MMedSci PhD MBChir (Cantab.) FRCPath is a British clinical academic and consultant histopathologist who holds a Clinical Chair at the University of Aberdeen, specializing in neurodegenerative diseases with a focus on early detection and disease prevention. She serves as Clinical Lead for the NHS Grampian Tissue Bank. Jenna’s research investigates the pathomechanisms of ALS-FTSD and other neurodegenerative diseases with a translational focus on combining early detection priorities with precision-medicine principles to empower precision-prevention strategies.

She is a researcher with experience in running clinical trials and biomarker development. She holds academic qualification in neuroscience (BSc, PhD), clinical trials (MSc), She began her medical education at the University of St Andrews in 2003, where she obtained an intercalated BSc in Neuroscience in 2007.

In 2007, Gregory joined the University of Cambridge as part of the MD PhD programme, obtaining her PhD in Chemistry and Medicine in 2011 under the supervision of Chris Dobson FRS FMedSci FRSC.

In 2013, she entered the academic foundation programme at the University of Edinburgh, completing a part-time MSc in Clinical Trials (2013–2016) She later received a Jean Shanks Foundation Grant She became Clinical Professor at the University of Aberdeen in 2024.

Research and Career St. Andrews (2003–2007) As part of an intercalated medical degree at the University of St. Andrews, Jenna obtained a BSc in Neuroscience in 2007 with project thesis supervised by Prof. Jim Aiton working on the chaperone Peroxiredoxin II, entitled “Over-expression of peroxiredoxin II protects cultured SK-N-SH cells from amyloid-beta toxicity”. and showed that the molecular chaperone Clusterin could also participate in intracellular aggregation events rescuing TDP-43 pathology in a paper that was later published in 2017.

Edinburgh (2013–2022) Jenna moved to the University of Edinburgh as part of the prestigious academic foundation programme in 2013. Alongside her full-time clinical training on this programme Jenna obtained a part-time MSc in Clinical Trials (2013–2016) with thesis titled, “A systematic approach to identify oral neuroprotective interventions for motor neuron disease”. This study included >14,000 human and animal model publications screened for relevance, with data extracted from 396 studies with findings presented in Jenna’s MSc thesis, to establish the UK-wide MND-SMART clinical trial, and whose ethics submission was approved by the West of Scotland Research Ethics Committee on 2 October 2019.

Recognising the important contribution of molecular stratification in oncology clinical trials, alongside the relative absence of molecular markers in neurodegeneration, Jenna undertook an MMedSci in Molecular Pathology (2016–2017) with funding from Biogen and the MRC. Jenna went to Karolinska Institute to learn spatial sequencing techniques (later to become 10X sequencing) in the lab of Joakim Lundberg, producing her thesis “Interrogating the spatial transcriptome of motor neurone disease”.

In 2018, Jenna established her independent research group as a clinical lecturer at the University of Edinburgh having been awarded a SCREDS Clinical Lectureship.

In 2022 Jenna qualified as a consultant histopathologist (FRCPath) in 2021, She became the clinical lead for the NHS Grampian Biorepository/Tissue bank in 2023,

2. Biomarkers and molecular diagnostics

4. Cognition and brain health

5. Machine learning and AI in neurodegenerative disease research

6. Clinical trials and drug repurposing

13. Cell energetics, proteostasis, stress and cell phenotypes

Selected publications

Spence* H, Waldron* FM, Saleeb RS, Brown AL, Rifai OM, Gilodi M, Read F, Roberts K, Milne G, Wilkinson D, O'Shaughnessy J, Pastore A, Fratta P, Shneider N, Tartaglia GG, Zacco E, Horrocks MH, Gregory JM (2024). RNA aptamer reveals nuclear TDP-43 pathology is an early aggregation event that coincides with STMN-2 cryptic splicing and precedes clinical manifestation in ALS. Acta Neuropathologica 2024 Mar 5;147(1):50. *equal contributions MND Association, LifeArc, MND Scotland, Jean Shanks Foundation, Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance, UKRI/Medical Research Council, MND Scotland and Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office, The Royal Society, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Pathological Society, Academy of Medical Sciences.