Dr. Heerding was trained as a neuropharmacologist working on ligand binding domain of receptors involved in the neural control of body fluid homeostasis. She is Associate Director of the undergraduate Neuroscience Program and has taught Autonomic Physiology, Stress Neuroscience, Behavioral Pharmacology, and Developmental Neurobiology at Penn. In addition, she teaches online courses in Neuroscience through the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, including Autonomic Pharmacology and Psychopharmacology.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Heerding has been advising students at Penn for 20 years. She has worked with incoming students to explore their interests and developed class schedules to help them investigate potential majors. She has worked with Neuroscience majors to plan coursework, discuss research opportunities and study abroad options, as well as long-term plans. She has also worked with students applying for graduate fellowships, helping with essay preparation (where applicable) and applications. She has worked with 2 students who were awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, 3 other Rhodes finalists, 3 Thouron Award recipients and 2 recipients of the Fullbright Scholarship Award.
Heerding, J.N., Yee, D.K., Fluharty, S.J. Identification and Function of Disulfide Bridges in the Extracellular Domains of the Angiotensin II Type 2 Receptor. (2001) Biochemistry 40: 8369-8377.
Hines, J.F., Heerding, J.N., Fluharty, S.J., Yee, D.K. Identification of Angiotensin II Type 2 (AT2) Receptor Domains Mediating High-Affinity CGP42112A Binding and Receptor Activation. (2001) Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 298: 665-673.
Heerding, J.N., Yee, D.K., Krichavsky, M.Z., Fluharty, S.J. Mutational Analysis of the Angiotensin Type 2 Receptor: Contribution of Conserved Amino Acids in the Region of the Sixth Transmembrane Domain. (1998) Regulatory Peptides 74: 113-119.
Yee, D.K., Heerding, J.N., Krichavsky, M.Z., Fluharty, S.J. Role of the Amino Terminus in Ligand Binding for the Angiotensin II Type 2 Receptor. (1998) Molecular Brain Research 57: 325-329.
Heerding, J.N., Yee, D.K., Jacobs, S.L., Fluharty, S.J. Mutational Analysis of the Angiotensin II Type 2 Receptor: Contribution of Conserved Extracellular Amino Acids. (1997) Regulatory Peptides 72: 97-103.
Yee, D.K., Kisley, L.R., Heerding, J.N., Fluharty, S.J. Mutation of a Conserved Fifth Transmembrane Domain Lysine Residue (Lys 215) Attenuates Ligand Binding in the Angiotensin II Type 2 Receptor. (1997) Molecular Brain Research 51: 238-241.
Raynor K; Kong H, Law S, Heerding J, Tallent M, Livingston F, Hines J, Reisine T Molecular biology of opioid receptors. NIDA Research Monograph (1996), 16183-103.
Raynor, K., Kong, H., Heerding, J., Hines, J., Benovic, J., Reisine, T. Differential agonist modulation of the cloned opioid receptors reveals distinct cellular mechanisms of receptor regulation. Regulatory Peptides (1994), 54(1), 239-40.
Heerding, J., Raynor, K., Kong, H., Yu, L., Reisine, T. Mutagenesis reveals that agonists and peptide antagonists bind in fundamentally distinct manners to the rat mu receptor than do nonpeptide antagonists. Regulatory Peptides (1994), 54(1), 119-20.