Jennifer Harrell

A love of puzzles leads to biomedical research

By Missouri S&T

February 4^th, 2026

Jennifer Harrell says she has been interested in biomedicine since her elementary school days.

“I’ve always loved a puzzle, loved helping people and loved asking questions,” says Harrell, a Ph.D. student in biological sciences at Missouri S&T from Union, Missouri. “My current research combines all three of those things.”

Harrell is studying wildland fire dispatchers’ sleep patterns and their cognitive performance — and she’s using mathematical models predicting the lifespan of fruit flies based on their sleep characteristics to provide some insights.

“Inadequate sleep promotes several diseases that reduce lifespan, leading us to hypothesize that there must be a general underlying mechanism affected by sleep,” she says. “To discover this mechanism, our interdisciplinary team has developed mathematical models to predict lifespan in the common fruit fly based on their sleep characteristics.”

Biological Sciences PhD student Jennifer Harrell using fruit flies to study how sleep patterns affect health and aging. Blaine Falkena/Missouri S&T

Jennifer Harrell looks into a container, holding a tube with an orange tip in her mouth, while working with fruit flies. — Biological Sciences PhD student Jennifer Harrell using fruit flies to study how sleep patterns affect health and aging. Blaine Falkena/Missouri S&T

Close-up of lab equipment: test tubes with red and green liquid, multi-well plates, and pipette tips on a gray surface. — Fruit flies are dyed as part of a study to analyse how sleep affects health and aging conducted by biological sciences PhD student Jennifer Harrell. Blaine Falkena/Missouri S&T

Fruit flies are placed in monitoring stations that track their movement as part of a study to analyse how sleep affects health and aging conducted by biological sciences PhD student Jennifer Harrell. Blaine Falkena/Missouri S&T

Harrell says that inadequate sleep has been linked to adverse health outcomes — including metabolic dysfunction, immune dysregulation and cognitive impairment, so they are a target while she studies lifespan models.

Along with the mathematical modeling, Harrell is also screening thousands of metabolites and lipids at once with mass spectrometry imaging to identify underlying mechanisms.

Our research, if successful, will further clarify the mechanism behind sleep and how it affects health. More importantly, our research could yield targets for intervention that are translatable to human medicine.

Jennifer Harrell

Already an S&T alumna

Harrell isn’t new to Missouri S&T. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at S&T in 2022 and decided to stay in Rolla to continue her studies.

She now has a graduate certificate in statistics from S&T under her belt as well.

As an undergraduate student, she was a member of the biological sciences honor society, part of the Equestrian Club and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

She also conducted research while completing her bachelor’s degree and she earned first place in the university’s Undergraduate Research Conference for research titled “Assessing the Effects of Age and Sex on mTBI Severity.”

Fruit flies are used to study how sleep patterns affect health and aging.
Michael Pierce/Missouri S&T — Fruit flies are used to study how sleep patterns affect health and aging. Michael Pierce/Missouri S&T

More awards

As a graduate student, Harrell has earned several honors — including earning first place in S&T’s 2025 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

She won over the judges with her presentation “Running on Empty: The Metabolic Price of Inadequate Sleep” and will advance to the regional 3MT competition in March.

Harrell also earned the 2025 Shi/Ma Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research. The Shi/Ma Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research was established by Dr. Honglan Shi, a research professor emeritus of chemistry at S&T, and her husband, Dr. Yinfa Ma, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor emeritus of chemistry at S&T.

Close-up of Jennifer Harrell, wearing glasses, with a tube in her mouth, manipulating a clear tube with yellow and pink ends. — Biological Sciences PhD student Jennifer Harrell using fruit flies to study how sleep patterns affect health and aging. Blaine Falkena/Missouri S&T

Fruit fly clings to the side of a clear plastic tube. The fly is black with translucent wings, and the tube is brightly lit. — Fruit flies are used to study how sleep patterns affect health and aging. Michael Pierce/Missouri S&T

When art meets science

When Harrell decided to get a tattoo, she says her love for research and science helped her know what she wanted permanently inked on her body

Her tattoo is a blend of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man painting with a fruit fly — the insect that takes the center stage in her research.

“I view it as a blend of art and science and the beauty that exists in both,” she says. “I got it at the beginning of my Ph.D. and, during the difficult parts of the journey, it reminds me of why I started and what I see in research.”