This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony on Oct. 29 for UNMC’s 2026 Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator recipients.
Jennifer Blackford, PhD, will receive a Research Leadership Award. Research Leadership Awards honor scientists previously recognized as Distinguished Scientists who have a longstanding research funding history and also serve as research leaders and mentors on campus.
- Name: Jennifer Urbano Blackford, PhD
- Title: Hattie B. Munroe Professor, associate dean and director of research, Munroe-Meyer Institute
- Joined UNMC: 2021
- Hometown: Miami, Florida
Please describe your research focus:
- Human anxiety neurocircuits
Why is research important in the world today?
Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health disorder in the United States, and rates are rapidly rising. Anxiety most often emerges in childhood and causes significant impairment across almost every area of life. Anxiety usually is chronic, persisting into adulthood, and significantly increases risk for later depression and substance use disorders.
My work will make a difference because:
We still know remarkably little about the neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to anxiety. My lab pioneered the investigation of the human bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), based on animal models, showing that the BNST is critical for anxiety. I hope that increasing our understanding of these mechanisms can lead to identifying the children at greatest risk for developing anxiety and can provide novel targets for preventions and interventions.
The best advice I could give a beginning researcher is: Find a research question that you are passionate about. Not necessarily the question that you studied as a trainee, but the question that keeps you up at night and is the first thing you think about in the morning.
The toughest lesson I’ve learned is: Rejection and failure are common in science, and it took me years to stop taking it personally. My closest colleague and I developed a personal slogan to help guide us in facing challenges in academia. We call the slogan the three P’s: Be persistent, positive and passionate. I keep a note on my computer as a daily reminder and especially when receiving tough manuscript or grant reviews.
The best part of my job is: My two favorite things about my job are mentoring the next generation of scientists and making new discoveries about the human brain.
Three things you may not know about me are:
- I am an avid knitter and reader (mainly detective, dystopian and adventure fiction).
- I left science for eight years and returned in a new field.
- I can take a nap and still fall asleep at night.