Jennifer Kelschenbach, PhD
Research Associate Professor
E-mail: jk3983@drexel.edu

Jennifer is a research associate professor in the department. She earned a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota and completed postdoctoral training in the Molecular Virology Division at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. She was then promoted to an associate research scientist and then research assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai before joining Drexel in 2025 as part of the Meucci Lab.

Jennifer has extensively studied HIV-1 and substance use comorbidity in the EcoHIV mouse model. Her work has described how opioids and other substances modulate neuroimmune function, and how this may contribute to HIV associated neurocognitive impairment. She has generated data for opioid- and cocaine-related projects within the SCORCH consortium (Single Cell Opioid Responses in the Context of HIV), and she is an MPI on R01 awards focused on how cannabinoids affect HIV-associated neuroinflammation, and how buprenorphine controls monocyte migration to the brain during HIV infection.

In the Meucci Lab, Jennifer is continuing her studies on buprenorphine and contributing to ongoing translational research on the effects of HIV-infection/substance abuse on neuronal networks and function, using a variety of animal and human-based neuroHIV models.