(6ac) At the Interface of Neuroscience and Cell & Biomolecular Engineering

In science, the most exciting discoveries often occur at the interface between two disciplines. In both my doctoral and postdoctoral work, I have been applying my training in chemical engineering to problems in neurodegeneration. During my graduate studies, I worked with Dane Wittrup at MIT to engineer antibody fragments to counteract disease in cellular models of Huntington's Disease. Since completing my doctorate, I have been working with Stanley Prusiner at UCSF, engineering "synthetic prion" strains, which are comprised of recombinant prion protein refolded into an infectious form in vitro. In the next phase of my career, I would like to establish a lab at the interface of engineering and neuroscience, applying cell and biomolecular engineering approaches to the most pressing problems in neurobiology.