Dr Rachel Jackson

Research

I joined the OU in 2025 as a Lecturer in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience. My research interest is synapse function in health and disease. I use advanced imaging techniques in cell culture models of neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative disease to explore alterations in synapse stucture and activity. 

Biography

I graduated in Natural Sciences (Physiology, Development and Neuroscience) from the University of Cambridge before undertaking a PhD at the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology at King's College London. During my PhD, I investigated the use of destabilising domains to control protein function in the developing embryonic brain under the supervision of Prof. Britta Eickholt. 

After a short postdoc at the Charite Universitatsmedizin in Berlin, I returned to King's College London to join the lab of Prof. Juan Burrone. My postdoctoral research focused on methods to interrogate synaptic structure and function, including a collaboration with Abbelight to develop a correlative functional and nanoscale imaging pipeline. I also collaborated with the Fratta lab at UCL and Trace Neuroscience to test therapeutic candidates to restore synaptic function in a model of the motor neuron disease ALS, a therapy which has now entered clinical trials.

Publications

Keuss M, Harley P, Ryadnov E, Jackson RE et al, (2026). Loss of TDP-43 induces synaptic dysfunction that is rescued by UNC13A splice switching ASOs. Nature, in press

Compans B, Mastrolia V, Lenherr C, Jackson RE, Burrone J (2026). In vivo modulation of network activity drives the nanoscale reorganisation of axo-axonic synapses at the axon initial segment. Nature Communications, in press

Horton S, Mastrolia V, Jackson RE et al (2024). Excitatory and inhibitory synapses show a tight subcellular correlation that weakens over development, Cell Rep, 43(7):114361. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114361

Jackson RE, Compans B, Burrone J (2022). Correlative Live-Cell and Super-Resolution Imaging to Link Presynaptic Molecular Organisation with Function, Front. Synaptic Neurosci, 15:830583. DOI: 10.3389/fnsyn.2022.830583

Glebov OO, Jackson RE, Winterflood CM et al (2017). Nanoscale Structural Plasticity of the Active Zone Matrix Modulates Presynaptic Function, Cell Rep, 18(11):2715-2728. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.02.064

Walker AS, Neves G, Grillo F, Jackson RE et al (2017). Distance-dependent gradient in NMDAR-driven spine calcium signals along tapering dendrites, PNAS, 114(10):E1986-E1995. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1607462114

Jackson RE, Burrone J (2016), Visualizing Presynaptic Calcium Dynamics and Vesicle Fusion with a Single Genetically Encoded Reporter at Individual Synapses, Front Synaptic Neurosci, 8:21. DOI: 10.3389/fnsyn.2016.00021

An W, Jackson RE, Hunter P, Gögel S et al (2015). Engineering FKBP-Based Destabilizing Domains to Build Sophisticated Protein Regulation Systems. PLoS ONE, 10(12): e0145783. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145783

Jackson RE, Eickholt BJ (2009). Semaphorin Signalling. Curr. Biol., 19(13):R504-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.04.055