Rate My Professor Kristin Miller-Jensen

Kathryn Miller-Jensen is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Doug Lauffenburger, and her A.B. and B.E. degrees from Dartmouth College. Before joining the Yale faculty, she served as an NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellow in the Schaffer laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Earlier in her career, she held positions at the National Academies as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow, Merck Pharmaceuticals, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Monitor Group.

Miller-Jensen's research program applies quantitative systems biology approaches to dissect intracellular signaling networks and cell-cell communication that govern immune cell behavior, emphasizing single-cell variability or noise in responses. Her lab investigates macrophage heterogeneity and paracrine signaling during pathogen responses and in tumor microenvironments, as well as signaling dynamics regulating latent HIV reactivation in T cells. Representative publications include "Myofibroblast proliferation and heterogeneity are supported by macrophages during skin repair" (Science, 2018), "Highly multiplexed profiling of single-cell effector functions reveals deep functional heterogeneity in response to pathogenic ligands" (PNAS, 2015), "Analysis of single-cell cytokine secretion reveals a role for paracrine signaling in coordinating macrophage responses to TLR4 stimulation" (Science Signaling, 2015), and "Common effector processing mediates cell-specific responses to stimuli" (Nature, 2007). She has earned the NSF CAREER Award (2015), Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Young Innovator Award (2014), Yale SEAS Ackerman Award for Teaching and Mentoring (2014), and NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008-2011). As Director of Graduate Studies for Biomedical Engineering, she oversees graduate education in the department. Her work has advanced understanding of immune cell functional diversity with implications for immunotherapy and viral latency therapies.