Jessica Tollkuhn received a B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Mills College in Oakland, California. She obtained her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences at the University of California, San Diego, where she defined a novel mechanism that directs cell differentiation during fetal development. Her postdoctoral work on estrogen regulation of brain sexual differentiation at the University of California, San Francisco was supported by a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award. Since joining the faculty of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2014, Tollkuhn has pioneered the study of gene regulation by gonadal hormone receptors in the brain.

The Tollkuhn lab integrates genomic approaches with analysis of neural circuitry and innate behaviors to determine how neuronal identity and connectivity are programmed by hormones during development and how this identity intersects with adult hormone status to cause distinct behavioral responses across sexes and species. Through identification of the direct genomic targets of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) in the mouse brain, her group provided the first picture of the neural actions of a sex hormone receptor, revealing that transient early life hormone signaling exerts persistent effects on gene expression in the developing brain. The Tollkuhn lab has found that both ERα and androgen receptor (AR) can activate cell type-specific enhancers of many SFARI candidate genes, leading to their sex-biased expression in select neuronal populations.