Kendall Van Keuren-Jensen

Kendall Van Keuren-Jensen is an American neurogenomics researcher known for her work in the field of extracellular RNA and its implications in neurological diseases.

She currently serves as the Vice President of Research and Professor in the Neurogenomics Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, where she also holds the position of director of the Center for Noninvasive Diagnostics.

Education Van Keuren-Jensen received her PhD from Stonybrook University at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, where she studied the role of activity-regulated genes in synaptic transmission and neuronal morphology with Dr. Hollis Cline.

She also has a Master’s degree in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Kansas, and she double majored in biology and anthropology at Boston University.

Career At Phoenix’s Tgen, Dr Van Keuren-Jensen’s lab examined dysregulated RNAs in neurodegenerative disease, including the RNA cargo of extracellular vesicles, using several sequencing platforms and a diverse set of bioinformatics tools for analysis.

In 2015, Van Keuren-Jensen was a principal investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant awarded through the Extracellular RNA Communication Program to support research on methods for detecting and treating brain injury caused by intracerebral hemorrhage.

In 2021, Van Keuren-Jensen served as a co-investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant that supported research into the role of immune cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

In 2022, Van Keuren-Jensen was a co-investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 grant supporting research into the use of stem cell models to differentiate subtypes of Lewy body dementia. In January 2025, she was named the acting director,

However in March 2025, she was among several staff members

Research Keuren-Jensen's research includes investigation into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE, where she headed a study to find out if biomarkers indicating CTE can be found in the blood, urine, or saliva of the living.

Awards

Outstanding Women in Business 2022: Phoenix Business Journal PLOS ONE Publication Recognition (2014): Her paper on potential RNA biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease was highlighted by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) for its impact.