For more than 35 years she co-headed a laboratory with Neal Copeland, successfully modeling many different types of human disease in the mouse but focusing exclusively on cancer the last 11 years. They have co-authored more than 800 papers and are among the most cited biomedical research scientists in the world today. Jenkins has served on numerous scientific advisory and editorial boards and has consulted for several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Jenkins is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2017, Jenkins and Copeland closed their lab and moved to the Department of Genetics at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.