Associate Professor Jennifer Zenker

GROUP LEADER

  • jennifer.zenker@monash.edu

Biography

Associate Professor Jennifer Zenker’s scientific journey started at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), where she obtained her PhD in Neurobiology, receiving the Amicitia PhD Excellence Prize. Next stop was Australia, starting her postdoctoral fellowship at EMBL Australia (Monash University), shortly followed by a move to Singapore to IMCB, A*STAR. During her postdoc Associate Professor Zenker specialised in live imaging of early mouse embryos which led to several seminal discoveries, including first author publications in Science (2017), Cell (2018) and Nature Protocols (2017). She was also awarded three international postdoctoral fellowships, from the Human Frontier Science Fellowship, German Research Foundation and Swiss National Science Foundation. 

Associate Professor Zenker then joined the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute as an independent group leader. Her research group contributed to the generation of iBlastoids (Nature, 2021) and discovered RNA asymmetries in early mouse embryos (Nature Communications, 2023). In 2019, she was awarded the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Azrieli Scholarship. This was followed by an NHMRC Ideas Grant (2020-2024), an NHMRC EL2 Investigator Grant (2021-2026) and an ARC Discovery Project Grant (2026-2029). As a real mark of her scientific excellence, Associate Professor Zenker received the Sylvia & Charles Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship(2023-2027), the Eduard Kellenberger Medal (2023) and the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology Emerging Leader Award (2025). 

Learn more about Associate Professor Zenker’s work here.

Click here for full list of publications on ORCID

Research interests

The Zenker group seeks to understand how a cell’s structure and function is regulated by the continuous re-organization of the microtubule network – highly dynamic cytoskeletal filaments regulating fundamental processes including cell division, migration and differentiation. Their research interests include:

  • Live imaging
  • Microtubule cytoskeleton
  • Developmental and Stem Cell Biology
  • Neurobiology

Featured Publications

Authors Title Published In

Hawdon, A., Geoghegan, N.D., Mohenska, M., Elsenhans A., Ferguson C., Polo J.M., Parton R.G., Zenker J.

Apicobasal RNA asymmetries regulate cell fate in the early mouse embryo.

Nat Commun 14, 2909 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38436-2

Liu X, Tan JP, Schröder J, Aberkane A, Ouyang JF, Mohenska M, Lim SM, Sun YBY, Chen J, Sun G, Zhou Y, Poppe D, Lister R, Clark AT, Rackham OJL, Zenker J, Polo JM.

Modelling human blastocysts by reprogramming fibroblasts into iBlastoids.

Nature. 2021 Mar;591(7851):627-632. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03372-y. Epub 2021 Mar 17. PMID: 33731926.

Stathatos GG, Dunleavy JEM, Zenker J, O’Bryan MK.

Delta and epsilon tubulin in mammalian development.

Trends Cell Biol. 2021 Apr 15:S0962-8924(21)00066-0. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2021.03.010. Epub 2021 Apr 15. PMID: 33867233.

Zenker J,* White MD*, Gasnier M*, Alvarez YD, Lim HYG, Bissiere S, Biro M, Plachta N.

Expanding Actin Rings Zipper the Mouse Embryo for Blastocyst Formation.

Cell. 2018 Apr 19;173(3):776-791.e17. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.02.035. Epub 2018 Mar 22.

Zenker J, White MD, Templin RM, Parton RG, Thorn-Seshold O, Bissiere S, Plachta N.

A microtubule-organizing center directing intracellular transport in the early mouse embryo.

Science. 2017 Sep 1;357(6354):925-928. doi: 10.1126/science.aam9335.

White MD, Zenker J, Bissiere S, Plachta N.

Instructions for Assembling the Early Mammalian Embryo.

Dev Cell. 2018 Jun 18;45(6):667-679. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2018.05.013.

Zhao ZW*, White MD*, Zenker J*, Alvarez YD, Bissiere S, Plachta N.

Quantifying transcription factor-DNA binding in single cells in vivo with photoactivatable fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

Nat Protoc. 2017 Jul;12(7):1458-1471. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2017.051. Epub 2017 Jun 29.

Stettner M, Zenker J, Klingler F, Szepanowski F, Hartung HP, Mausberg AK, Kleinschnitz C, Chrast R, Kieseier BC.

The role of Peripheral Myelin Protein 2 in Remyelination.

Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2018 Mar;38(2):487-496. doi: 10.1007/s10571-017-0494-0. Epub 2017 Apr 26.

White MD, Zenker J, Bissiere S, Plachta N.

How cells change shape and position in the early mouse embryo.

Current Opinion in Cell Biology 2017 Feb;44:7-13. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2016.11.002. Epub 2016 Dec 26.

Barneo-Muñoz M, Juárez P, Civera-Tregón A, Yndriago L, Pla-Martin D, Zenker J, Cuevas-Martín C, Estela A, Sánchez-Aragó M, Forteza-Vila J, Cuezva JM, Chrast R, Palau F.

Lack of GDAP1 induces neuronal calcium and mitochondrial defects in a knockout mouse model of charcot-marie-tooth neuropathy.

PLoS Genet. 2015 Apr 10;11(4):e1005115. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005115. eCollection 2015 Apr.

Zenker J, Stettner M, Ruskamo S, Domènech-Estévez E, Baloui H, Médard JJ, Verheijen MH, Brouwers JF, Kursula P, Kieseier BC, Chrast R.

A role of peripheral myelin protein 2 in lipid homeostasis of myelinating Schwann cells.

Glia. 2014 Sep;62(9):1502-12. doi: 10.1002/glia.22696. Epub 2014 May 21.

Ngo L, Haas M, Qu Z, Li SS, Zenker J, Teng KS, Gunnersen JM, Breuss M, Habgood M, Keays DA, Heng JI.

TUBB5 and its disease-associated mutations influence the terminal differentiation and dendritic spine densities of cerebral cortical neurons.

Hum Mol Genet. 2014 Oct 1;23(19):5147-58. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddu238. Epub 2014 May 15.

Zenker J, Ziegler D, Chrast R.

Novel pathogenic pathways in diabetic neuropathy.

Trends Neurosci. 2013 Aug;36(8):439-49. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2013.04.008. Epub 2013 May 29.

Azzedine H, Zavadakova P, Planté-Bordeneuve V, Vaz Pato M, Pinto N, Bartesaghi L, Zenker J, Poirot O, Bernard-Marissal N, Arnaud Gouttenoire E, Cartoni R, Title A, Venturini G, Médard JJ, Makowski E, Schöls L, Claeys KG, Stendel C, Roos A, Weis J, Dubourg O, Leal Loureiro J, Stevanin G, Said G, Amato A, Baraban J, LeGuern E, Senderek J, Rivolta C, Chrast R.

PLEKHG5 deficiency leads to an intermediate form of autosomal-recessive Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Hum Mol Genet. 2013 Oct 15;22(20):4224-32. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddt274. Epub 2013 Jun 17.

Zenker J, Poirot O, de Preux Charles AS, Arnaud E, Médard JJ, Lacroix C, Kuntzer T, Chrast R.

Altered distribution of juxtaparanodal kv1.2 subunits mediates peripheral nerve hyperexcitability in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

J Neurosci. 2012 May 30;32(22):7493-8. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0719-12.2012.

Stendel C, Roos A, Kleine H, Arnaud E, Ozçelik M, Sidiropoulos PN, Zenker J, Schüpfer F, Lehmann U, Sobota RM, Litchfield DW, Lüscher B, Chrast R, Suter U, Senderek J.

SH3TC2, a protein mutant in Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy, links peripheral nerve myelination to endosomal recycling.

Brain. 2010 Aug;133(Pt 8):2462-74. doi: 10.1093/brain/awq168.

de Preux Charles AS, Verdier V, Zenker J, Peter B, Médard JJ, Kuntzer T, Beckmann JS, Bergmann S, Chrast R.

Global transcriptional programs in peripheral nerve endoneurium and DRG are resistant to the onset of type 1 diabetic neuropathy in Ins2 mice.

PLoS One. 2010 May 26;5(5):e10832. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010832.

Arnaud E, Zenker J, de Preux Charles AS, Stendel C, Roos A, Médard JJ, Tricaud N, Kleine H, Luscher B, Weis J, Suter U, Senderek J, Chrast R.

SH3TC2/KIAA1985 protein is required for proper myelination and the integrity of the node of Ranvier in the peripheral nervous system.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Oct 13;106(41):17528-33. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0905523106. Epub 2009 Sep 29.