Jennifer Haynes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
haynesje@marshall.edu
Biosketch 
 

Dr. Jennifer Haynes has been working in the field of cell and tissue biology for a number of years. Over the past 10 years, her studies have mainly focused on gastrointestinal physiology and pathophysiology. This includes basic and translational research in areas such as intestinal epithelial cell biology, signaling and transport, three-dimensional organoid culture, and colon cancer. As a faculty at Marshall University, the overall goal of Dr. Haynes’ research is to understand how intestinal epithelial cell transport is physiologically regulated, and how this is altered in human disease states such as obesity, inflammation, and cancer. She has established a library of long-term epithelial organoid culture models from human intestinal biopsy tissue (normal and disease) to facilitate studies on intestinal physiology and pathophysiology. Dr. Haynes’ current research focus as a COBRE ACCORD investigator is to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying obesity-related alterations in nutrient transport in human intestinal epithelial cells and colon cancer cells, primarily using patient-derived intestinal organoid models. Identifying and understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying alterations in nutrient transport will promote the development of more effective treatments for obesity and related diseases.