Jillian completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the University of Southern California and was a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Stanford University. Currently, Jillian serves as the Scientific Advisor to the Rare Genetic Disease group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Jillian’s research interests are focused on uncovering detailed, mechanistic understandings of disease pathways and circuits that serve as the foundation for the development of targeted therapeutics, with a special interest in difficult-to-treat diseases and genetically defined disorders. This work has culminated in high-impact publications across genetics, neuroscience, and cell-biology.

Jillian previously worked for the non-profit Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, an organization that has donated more than $165 million to high risk; high reward research projects. In addition, Jillian has worked as a consultant for numerous startups and worked on the team at the Broad Institute that pioneered a platform to assay the cellular effects of lipids to identify novel modulators of lipotoxicity.