People
Christina Jackson, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
christina.jackson2@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Provider Profile
Christina Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a member of the Penn Institute for Immunology.
Dr. Jackson received her MD from Harvard Medical School where she studied the systemic T cell dysfunction in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) with Dr. Peter Fecci and discovered the novel phenomenon of S1P1-mediated bone marrow T cell sequestration in patients with intracranial tumors. She then completed her neurosurgery residency at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. There she completed her post-doctoral training with Dr. Drew Pardoll, studying the role of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in GBM tumor progression and aggression.
Yi Ning
Post Doctoral Fellow
Yi Ning earned her Ph.D. from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is passionate about exploring the metabolic interactions between cancer cells and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), and how these dynamics help tumors evade immune clearance and promote immunosuppression. She likes yoga, reading detective novels, and coffee.
Kate Jones
Research Specialist
Kate grew up in Northern NJ. She graduated from Amherst College in 2021 and joined the Jackson Lab in 2023. She will be starting as an MD-PhD student at Penn this summer. When she's not in lab, Kate loves to go to concerts, learn languages, and play board games.
Mingshuang Wang
Research Specialist
Ming joined Dr. Jackson’s lab after earning a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech with a focus on applying machine learning to biomedicine. Her research centers on unraveling the T cell landscape within the glioblastoma tumor microenvironment and identifying the cellular and molecular mechanisms that contribute to its immunosuppressive state. In addition to her research, Ming co-founded Senior Shield, a startup dedicated to developing technology for incontinence detection, aiming to enhance care for seniors and support for their caregivers. Outside of the lab, she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, and playing card games!
Brandon Bergsneider
Medical Student/Research Associate
Brandon Hwa-Lin Bergsneider is a medical student at Stanford University. Before starting medical school, Brandon obtained a BS in Human Biology from Stanford, obtained a MSc in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology from Imperial College London, and worked as a Cancer Research Training Award Fellow in the NIH Neuro-Oncology Branch. His research interests lie in using single cell-omics technologies to better understand the glioma tumor microenvironment, discover novel drug targets, and elucidate the determinants of immunotherapy response. His research is funded by the Stanford MedScholars program and the University of Pennsylvania Guggenheim Family Neurosurgery Fellowship. Additionally, he is passionate about healthcare access and patient quality of life, and he co-directs Stanford’s student-run neurology free clinic and has developed software tools for prioritizing symptoms for precision symptom care management. When not studying or behind his computer coding, Brandon enjoys surfing and playing IM sports. He is a Knight-Hennessy Scholar and a former US-UK Fulbright Scholar.
Alumni
Leah Davis
Research Technician
Leah Davis is a research specialist in the Jackson Lab, focusing on how the immune microenvironment, specifically the MDSC and T-cell landscape, promote tumor progression and tumor immunosuppression in GBM and skull based tumors. Her background and expertise is in immunoengineering, synthetic biology, and solid cancer adoptive cell therapy. Prior to her current position, Leah focused on engineering mammalian cell based biosensors for the detection and activation in the hypoxic and acidic tumor microenvironment.
Leah is currently completing her master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at Rowan University and received her bachelors in Energy Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. If she is not in the lab you can find her with her pug, Nugget.