Interview with Jenny Zilberberg

Dr. Jenny Zilberberg is an assistant scientist at Hackensack University Medical Center (HackensackUMC)—one of the largest health service providers in New Jersey, ranked in the top three hospitals in the New York metro area. Dr. Zilberberg described her work environment as unique because it has given her the opportunity to perform translational research while facilitating one-on-one interactions between physicians and scientists. Her current research area focuses on cancer immunology; in particular, she is studying multiple myeloma and graft-versus-host disease, one of the major complications associated with bone marrow transplantation.

Dr. Zilberberg spent 1996 to 2001 pursuing master’s and doctorate degrees at Penn State. For her master's degree, Dr. Zilberberg utilized her chemical engineering background to pursue research on diabetic ulcerations and the connection between the glycosylation of proteins in relation to the shear stresses experienced by the plantar surface of the foot. This research was conducted with Dr. Peter Cavanagh at Penn State and Dr. Briand Davis at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, OH. For her doctorate, Dr. Zilberberg returned to University Park to work under the direction of Dr. Norman Harris on microcirculation-related research.

Following graduate school at Penn State, Dr. Zilberberg took two postdoc opportunities. The first postdoc was at the University of Pennsylvania. Moving on from this position, she wanted to become more involved with translational research, which led her to Jefferson University where she began working in the area of cancer immunology. Zilberberg moved on to research associate, instructor, and scientist at HackensackUMC where she has been working for almost 10 years. In 2013, Dr. Zilberberg received the 2013 Innovator Award from Stevens Institute of Technology for research on creating an in vitro microenvironment to preserve and expand patient-derived multiple myeloma cells.

When asked what she saw as the future for biomedical engineering, Zilberberg said, “personalized medicine. There are more people in biomedical engineering that are beginning to understand diseases and are designing individualized therapeutic interventions for a more effective, tailored treatment.”

- Brittany Banik, doctoral student in biomedical engineering