Dr Skinner is involved in both clinical and basic science research. Her clinical research involves optimizing the care for women with breast cancer. She has ongoing trials studying the effect of timing of surgery during the menstrual cycle in premenopausal women with breast cancer, and is one of the NYU investigators studying the impact of tailoring chemotherapy for women with locally advanced breast cancer based on the biologic characteristics of their tumor.

Dr Skinner also runs a basic science laboratory studying the role of DNA methylation in breast cancer and actively tries to translate the findings in the laboratory into clinical studies. Currently, she is studying whether DNA methylation can be used as biomarker for breast cancer risk and whether it can be a target for therapy in preinvasive breast cancer. Further, she is working to identify biologic markers of invasive potential in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).