Dr. Megan Jones’ research interests focused on understanding the interplay of autophagy—a highly conserved cellular recycling pathway—and apoptosis, a tightly regulated cell death mechanism, in the context of cancer therapy. Her early work identified a novel cell death pathway in which stalled autophagy initiates caspase-8-dependent apoptosis. She later expanded her research to investigate how bioactive sphingolipids regulate intracellular membrane trafficking for both autophagy and cancer cell death.

Dr. Jones serves as the Strategic Research Program Manager in Research Development at the College of Medicine. In this role, she manages a diverse portfolio of internal funding programs designed to support investigators at all career stages. She also partners with departments and units across the College to administer internal award programs and leads the coordination of scientific merit review processes, including College of Medicine limited submissions.