Kendall Van Keuren-Jensen Ph.D.

Professor and Director
Neurogenomics Division

Deputy Director of Research Resources

Director
Center for Noninvasive Diagnostics

Kendall Van Keuren-Jensen Ph.D.

Diseases and injuries of the central nervous system (CNS) are difficult to diagnose, monitor, and treat. The development of reliable mechanisms for early detection of illness and injury may help to prevent secondary insult cascades and reduce long-term deficits in patients with neurological conditions. Permanency of damage to the CNS is time sensitive, in many cases once neurological involvement is severe enough to cause clinically detectable symptoms, the damage becomes irreversible. Due to the inaccessibility of the tissue, molecular changes in the CNS are difficult to monitor.

There has been significant interest in the utility of circulating RNA as a proxy for monitoring CNS injury and disease. Circulating protein, RNA, metabolomic, and lipidomic materials are released from cells, protected from degradation in extracellular vesicles or bound to proteins. This molecular information, from every tissue, gets into bodily fluids (such as blood, urine and saliva) and provides information about pathogenic processes associated with disease, injury, inflammation and damage in a minimally invasive way. Extracellular vesicles and RNA binding proteins provide us with a new handle for monitoring and understanding disease progression, identification of biomarkers, assay development, and therapeutic discovery. The minimally invasive nature for collecting extracellular information from biofluids allows for frequent sampling, with the potential to closely monitor pathophysiological mechanisms of traumatic injury and disease.

Our lab examines the RNA cargo of extracellular vesicles using several different sequencing platforms (Illumina, Oxford Nanopore, 10x Genomics) and a diverse set of bioinformatics tools for analysis

Dr. Van Keuren-Jensen received her Ph.D. from Stonybrook University at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York where she studied the role of activity-regulated genes in synaptic transmission and neuronal morphology. Following her Ph.D., she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School for a short time before coming to TGen. She also has a Master’s degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Kansas, and she double majored in Biology and Anthropology at Boston University.

Publications

Extracellular microRNAs in blood differentiate between ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke subtypes. M. Yashar S. Kalani, Eric Alsop, Bessie Meechoovet, Taylor Beecroft, Komal Agrawal, Timothy G. Whitsett, Matthew J. Huentelman, Robert F. Spetzler, Peter Nakaji, Seungchan Kim & Kendall Van Keuren-Jensen. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, VOL. 9, 1713540 (2020)

ADAR2 mislocalization and widespread RNA editing aberrations in C9orf72-mediated ALS/FTD. Moore S, Alsop E, Lorenzini I, Starr A, Rabichow BE, Mendez E, Levy JL, Burciu C, Reiman R, Chew J, Belzil VV, W Dickson D, Robertson J, Staats KA, Ichida JK, Petrucelli L, Van Keuren-Jensen K, Sattler R. Acta Neuropathol. 138(1):49-65. (2019)
Total Extracellular Small RNA Profiles from Plasma, Saliva, and Urine of Healthy Subjects. Yeri A, Courtright A, Reiman R, Carlson E, Beecroft T, Janss A, Siniard A, Richholt R, Balak C, Rozowsky J, Kitchen R, Hutchins E, Winarta J, McCoy R, Anastasi M, Kim S, Huentelman M, Van Keuren-Jensen K., Sci Rep. 2017, 7:44061.
Two distinct extracellular RNA signatures released by a single cell type identified by microarray and next-generation sequencing. Lässer C, Shelke GV, Yeri A, Kim DK, Crescitelli R, Raimondo S, Sjöstrand M, Gho YS, Van Keuren Jensen K, Lötvall J. , RNA Biol. 2017 14(1):58-72.

Isolation, identification, and characterization of novel nanovesicles. Oncotarget. Zhang HG, Cao P, Teng Y, Hu X, Wang Q, Yeri A, Zhuang X, Samykutty A, Mu J, Deng Z, Zhang L, Mobley J, Yan J, Van Keuren-Jensen K, Miller D. (2016), Oncotarget. 7(27):41346-41362

Bringing RNA-seq closer to the clinic. Van Keuren-Jensen K, Keats JJ, Craig DW. (2014) Nat Biotechnol. 32:884-5.

Profiles of extracellular miRNA in cerebrospinal fluid and serum from patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases correlate with disease status and features of pathology. Burgos K*, Malenica I*, Metpally R, Courtright A, Rakela B, Beach T, Shill H, Adler C, Sabbagh M, Villa S, Tembe W, Craig D, Van Keuren-Jensen K., (2014) PLOS ONE 9(5):e94839.
RNA isolation for small RNA next-generation sequencing from acellular biofluids. Burgos KL, Van Keuren-Jensen K. (2014) Methods Mol Biol. 1182:83-92
Identification of extracellular miRNA in human cerebrospinal fluid by next-generaton sequencing. Burgos KL, Javaherian A, Bomprezzi R, Ghaffari L, Rhodes S, Courtright A, Tembe W, Kim S, Metpally R, Van Keuren-Jensen K. (2013) RNA, 19; 712:722.
Comparison of Analysis Tools for miRNA High Throughput Sequencing Using Nerve Crush as a Model. Metpally RP, Nasser S, Malenica I, Courtright A, Carlson E, Ghaffari L, Villa S, Tembe W, Van Keuren-Jensen K. (2013) Front Genet. 4(20), 1-13.
Association of CR1, CLU and PICALM with Alzheimer's disease in a cohort of clinically characterized and neuropathologically verified individuals. Corneveaux JJ, Myers AJ, Allen AN, Pruzin JJ, Ramirez M, Engel A, Nalls MA, Chen K, Lee W, Chewning K, Villa SE, Meechoovet HB, Gerber JD, Frost D, Benson HL, O'Reilly S, Chibnik LB, Shulman JM, Singleton AB, Craig DW, Van Keuren-Jensen KR, Dunckley T, Bennett DA, De Jager PL, Heward C, Hardy J, Reiman EM, Huentelman MJ. Hum Mol Genet Aug 15;19(16):3295-301 2010
Homer Proteins Shape Xenopus Optic Tectal Cell Dendritic Arbor Development in Vivo. Van Keuren-Jensen K.R., and Cline H.T. Developmental Neurobiology 68:1315-1324 2008
Ewald R, Van Keuren-Jensen KR, Aizenman CD, Cline H.T., Roles of NR2A and NR2B in the development of dendritic arbor morphology in vivo. Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 28: 850-861 2008
Van Keuren-Jensen, K and Cline, H.T., Visual Experience Regulates mGluR-mediated Plasticity of AMPAR Synaptic Transmission by Homer1a Induction. Journal of Neuroscience 26:7575-7580 2006
Foa, L, Van Keuren-Jensen, K, Rajan, I, Bronson, K, Gasperini, R, Worley, P.F., Tu, J.C., Cline, H.T.., Homer Expression in the Xenopus Tadpole Nervous System Journal of Comparative Neurology 487, 42-53 2005
Aizenman, C., Akerman, C., Van Keuren-Jensen, K., Cline, H.., Visually Driven Regulation of Intrinsic Neuronal Excitability Improves Stimulus Detection In Vivo Neuron 39, 831-842 2003.
Haas, K., Van Keuren-Jensen, K., Sin, W.C., Foa, L., Cline, H.T.., Targeted electroporation in Xenopus tadpoles in vivo from single cells to the entire brain Differentiation, 70 (4-5), 148-54 2002
Van Keuren-Jensen, K., de la Bastide, M., Parsons, R., Parnell, L.D., Dedhia, N., Gottesman, T., Gnoj, L., Kaplan, N., Lodhi, M., Johnson, A.F., Shohdy, N., Hasegawa, A., Haberman, K., Huang, E.N., Schutz, K., Calma, C., Granat, S., Wigler, M., McCombie, W.R., Genomic Sequence of PTEN/MMAC1 GenBank Accession AF067844 2002
Van Keuren-Jensen, K.R., Stodgell, C.J., Schroeder, S.R., Tessel, R.E., Fixed-ratio Discrimination Training as Replacement Therapy in Parkinson's Disease: Studies in a 6-hydroxydopamine-treated Rat Model Brain Research 780(1):56-66 1998
Lucito, R., Nakimura, M., West, J.A., Han, Y., Chin, K., Van Keuren-Jensen, K., McCombie, R., Gray, J.W., Wigler, M., Genetic Analysis Using Genomic Representations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 95(8):4487-92 1998
Frye, C.A., Van Keuren-Jensen, K.R., Erskine , M.S., Behavioral Effects of 3 alpha-androstanediol. I: Modulation of Sexual Receptivity and Promotion of GABA-stimulated Chloride Flux. Behavioral Brain Research, 79(1-2):109-18 1996
Frye, C.A., Van Keuren-Jensen, K.R., Rao, P.N., Erskine, M.S., Analgesic Effects Of The Neurosteroid 3 alpha-androstanediol. Brain Research 709(1):1-9 1996