Dr. Bradley received her doctorate from the University of California Berkeley, in 1981 in studies of CD4 T cell subsets that regulate humoral immune responses. Her work on the regulation of CD4 T cells continued during her postdoctoral training at The Oregon Primate Research Center and at the University of California, San Diego where she was appointed Assistant Research Professor in 1991. It was at this time she developed NIH sponsored her research program on CD4 T cells and discovered the key associations between migration and function. She joined The Scripps Research institute as an Assistant Professor in 1996 where she expanded her work on CD4 T cells into the arena of autoimmunity and discovered the essential role of the cytokine, interleukin-7, in the regulation of CD4 cell homeostasis.
She joined the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in 2001 as an Associate Professor, and was promoted to Professor in 2005. She joined Sanford Burnham Prebys as a Professor in the Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases Center in 2009. Dr. Bradley is recognized as a key contributor in the field of CD4 T cell biology, is an invited speaker at many national and international meetings, and serves on several study sections for the NIH as well as the Welcome Trust, Medical Research Council, and the JDRF.