During Dr. Bradshaw's graduate career, she studied behavioral responses to uterine and vaginal stimulation in rats in concert with neurophysiologic measurements in the brainstem in order to understand neuronal responses to stimulation of reproductive tissue. These studies identified novel processing of neuronal information from stimulation of the uterus, cervix, and vagina in the brain and showed that both the behavioral and neuronal responses changed with variations in circulating hormones.

To further understand neuronal processing at the cellular level she pursued post-doctoral training at Brown University in the field of endogenous cannabinoid lipid signaling. Her studies in this field led to a post-doctoral grant to study the relationship of endogenous cannabinoids and uterine neurophysiology. During these studies she moved with her post-doctoral mentor to the Indiana University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Her current work focuses on the regulation of uterine contractions by endogenous cannabinoid signaling lipids.

Dr. Bradshaw's focus at the Kinsey Institute will be to more fully understand how different chronic conditions in humans are perhaps caused by the loss of the regulation of uterine and vaginal neurophysiology. There are very little data on vaginal neurophysiology in particular in humans and that is something she would like to work on within the Kinsey Institute. By crossing-over into human studies of the regulation of vaginal smooth muscle tone, Dr. Bradshaw's goal is to provide a better framework for understanding chronic conditions involving vaginal function.