Healing Through Scientific Discovery
Dr. Jackie Bickenbach
McCord Research Foundation Mentor, University of Iowa
Dr. Jackie R. Bickenbach is an Associate Professor in the Pathology, Dermatology and Anatomy & Cell Biology Departments at the University of Iowa, and a McCord Research Foundation Mentor.
Dr. Bickenbach received a master’s degree in radiation biology and a Ph.D. in radiation and cell biology from the University of Iowa in 1979 and 1982 respectively. She completed postdoctoral work in epithelial stem cells at the University of Iowa in 1983 and in human skin development at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1986.
Dr. Bickenbach was a research associate in both the Cell Biology Department of Baylor College of Medicine and the Dermatology Department of the University of Texas Medical School. Subsequent to that she served as assistant professor in the Cell Biology & Dermatology Department of Baylor College of Medicine. From 1997 to 1999, Dr. Bickenbach was an associate research scientist in the Anatomy & Cell Biology Department of the University of Iowa. Most recently, she was assistant director of the University of Iowa's Biosciences Program.
Dr. Bickenbach's research interests include epidermal stem cells and other related areas in the field of skin biology. She has received numerous grants from the NIH, University of Maryland, McCord Research, and other universities, corporations and foundations.
Her research has been published in more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, including the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Experimental Cell Research, Proceedings of the Association of American Physicians, Skin and Gene Therapy, Advances in Dermatology, Experimental Dermatology, Stem Cell Reviews, Journal of Cell Physiology, Journal of Vascular Research, Differentiation, Journal of Periodontal Research, Aging Cell, Cell Proliferation, and Stem Cells.
Since 2005, Dr. Bickenbach has served on the editorial board of Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy. She has also been a recent grant reviewer for the following NIH review panels: National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Cellular Mechanisms in Aging and Development, Intercellular Interactions, Arthritis Cconnective Tissue and Skin, and Development 2.
Her awards and honors include: the Visiting Scientist Award at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany; the Hatton Award for Dental Research; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Young Investigator Award; and Johnson & Johnson's Focused Giving Award.
She has been an invited speaker at: the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology (keynote); the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard; Norbert Fusenig's Symposium on Molecular Mechanisms of Epithelial Differentiation; the NIH/National Institute on Aging (NIA) Aging and Stem Cells Symposium; the Experimental Biology Symposium on Stem Cells in the Adult Epidermis; the Korean Society for Investigative Dermatology (keynote); and twice at the Timberline Symposium (2005 and 2008).
Dr. Bickenbach is proud to live in Iowa and be one of Iowa's science pioneers.
The McCord Research Foundation provides fellowships to doctoral and post-doctoral students in the University of Iowa Biosciences Graduate School Program in the fields of Free Radical, Anatomy and Cell Biology.