Jessica Keating

  • Current Program Year: Grad1
  • M.D./Ph.D. Program Students, School of Medicine

Biography

I graduated from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada in 2013 with a BA in Psychology and from the University of Edinburgh in 2015 with a MSc in Cognitive Neuropsychology. I later worked as an English teacher in South Korea and conducted research with young stroke survivors in Melbourne, Australia, where I made the decision to pursue physician-scientist training. After two subsequent years of pre-med and one year as a research assistant at Rutgers University in New Jersey, I joined OHSU’s MD-PhD program in 2021.

My research focus has evolved from human memory, to needs assessment and stroke service delivery, to spinal cord circuits of pain and touch. I now investigate the genetic and molecular modulators of alpha-synuclein’s pathological effects in the central nervous system in the Martin and Unni Labs. When I’m not doing science you can find me on a PNW mountain or at home making a meal for friends. 

Research interests: Neuroscience of brain injury, dementia, sleep (especially relationships with neuro disorders), glia and circuits in brain and spinal cord.

Clinical interests: Neurology, dermatology, and global health.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • M.Sc., 2015, University of Edinburgh

Publications

Selected publications

  • Keating, J., Borschmann, K., Johns, H., Churilov, L., & Bernhardt, J. Shaping better care: Young stroke survivors’ preferred methods of meeting their unique needs. Neurology 96(13): e1701-10
  • Keating, J., Affleck-Brodie, C., Wiegand, R., & Morcom, A. M. (2017). Aging, working memory capacity and the proactive control of recollection: An event-related potential study. PLoS ONE 12(7): e0180367

Publications