Microscopy Personnel

jenpete@umich.edu
Phone: 734-936-4912

Dr. Jennifer Peters experience includes nearly 20 years of utilizing microscopy and imaging techniques in a variety of settings including academia, the microscopy industry, and research medicine. She completed her Ph.D. in Bioanalytical Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh in 2001, where her research involved the study of dopaminergic neurotransmission using in vivo voltammetry. In addition to electrochemical studies, her Ph.D. research also utilized electron microscopy to image the brain tissue surrounding microelectrode implantation sites.

Peters is no stranger to the University of Michigan, as it’s where her career in microscopy took root. After serving as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert T. Kennedy at the University of Florida, she joined Kennedy at the University of Michigan, where he currently serves as the Hobart H. Willard Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Chair of Chemistry. Her research in the Kennedy laboratory utilized a novel live-cell confocal microscopy method to image secretion from pancreatic islets. After completing her postdoc, Peters worked under the direction of Dr. James R. Baker as a staff microscopist at the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and the Biologicals Sciences (M-NIMBS), where she imaged PAMAM dendrimer nanodevices designed to selectively target and deliver therapeutic agents to cancer cells. During this time, she also had the opportunity to utilize instrumentation at the BRCF Microscopy Core and further develop her interests in advanced microscopy techniques.

Most recently, Peters worked in the Cell and Tissue Imaging Center at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for training, collaborating, and managing the projects of facility users. She made substantial contributions to users’ projects by applying expertise in both microscopy and image analysis, which resulted in the co-authorship of several high-impact publications. She also participated in the acquisition and installation of all the major imaging systems currently in use in the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Cell and Tissue Imaging Center.

nwalter@umich.edu
Phone: 734-615-2060

Nils is currently the Francis S. Collins Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, Biophysics, and Biological Chemistry in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He founded and currently directs the unique Single Molecule Analysis in Real-Time (SMART) Center, as well as cofounded and currently codirects the Center for RNA Biomedicine at Michigan. He started his career by receiving his “Vordiplom” (B.S.) and “Diploma” (Masters) from the Technical University of Darmstadt after performing research with Hans-Günther Gassen on the physiochemical characterization of a protein dehyrogenase enzyme. He earned his Dr. Ing. while studying molecular in vitro evolution of DNA and RNA using fluorescence techniques with Nobel laureate Manfred Eigen at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen. For his postdoctoral studies, he turned to RNA enzymes under the guidance of John M. Burke at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. His research interests focus on noncoding RNA through the lens of single molecule techniques. Based on this work, he received the Otto-Hahn medal for Outstanding Researchers of the Max-Planck Society (1995), a Feodor-Lynen Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (1995), a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2004), was elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2011), received the Faculty Recognition (2013) and Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Awards (2015) from the University of Michigan, and became the first RNA Society Mid-Career Award recipient (2017). He took on the Faculty Directorship of the Michigan Medicine BRCF Microscopy Core in April 2020.