Jane Fountain, Ph.D.

Dr. Fountain joined NINDS in 2005 as a Program Director in the Neural Environment (NET) Cluster. She currently oversees the brain tumor grant portfolio (which is a shared portfolio with NCI). Dr. Fountain received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the University of Michigan. After postdoctoral training at M.I.T., she became an Assistant and, then, Associate, Professor in the Institute for Genetic Medicine, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. While there, she performed research focused on identifying and characterizing tumor suppressor genes involved in sporadic and familial melanoma. As a graduate student, she was part of a team that localized and identified the von Recklinghausen neurofibromatosis (NF1) gene. Prior to joining NINDS, Dr. Fountain was a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for five years where she oversaw large, multi-disciplinary, translational [Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE)] grants on brain tumors, gynecological cancers, and skin cancer. Her interests lie in promoting interactions that facilitate the translation of basic discoveries into clinical applications and encourage collaborations between investigators with diverse expertise.