Meet Dr Jenny Tullet, programme director for Biology. Dr Tullet joined the University of Kent in September 2014 after conducting research into the Biology of Ageing at University College London and Harvard, USA. Prior to that, she obtained her PhD from Imperial College London and her undergraduate BSc from The University of Kent. The University promoted her to Senior Lecturer in 2018 and Reader in 2021.
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Her research focuses on the molecules and processes that regulate lifespan and influence life-long health. Her laboratory uses the nematode worm C. elegans, harnessing its genetic tractability to answer these scientific questions. Importantly, interventions that extend lifespan also tend to protect against age-related pathologies so, her aim is not simply to extend lifespan but also to improve the quality of late-life health. Her interest in ageing biology has led to a number of interesting research projects spanning appetite regulation, stress resistance, neurobiology, metabolism and transcriptional regulation. Her work is well funded by the BBSRC. As the molecules that her lab studies are conserved in mammalian cells, studying their effects on lifespan and health in worms, means that this information will eventually be used to design interventions to slow ageing and improve the late-life health of humans.
At Kent, Dr Tullet combines her research in these topics with undergraduate teaching and postgraduate supervision. Jenny directs Kent’s Biology Undergraduate programme, convenes a module on Ageing Biology, teaches neurobiology and genetics and uses her expertise in whole-organism biology to expand the University’s research-led curriculum. She also supervises stage 3 project students, Masters by Research students and PhD students. In addition she is on the management board for the South Coast Bio BBSRC Doctoral Training Programme, a member of the BBSRC pool of experts, and editor at Frontiers in Invertebrate Physiology.