I graduated from St. Olaf College in 2009 with a B.A. in Chemistry, Religion, and a concentration in Biomedical Studies. I then earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Anatomy from the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, California. I performed my PhD research in the laboratory of Dr. Wolff M. Kirsch where I studied the role of biometals (copper, iron, and zinc), immune defects, and neurovascular fragility in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA) and worked to develop a method for sterilizing and depyrogenating the biopolymer chitosan so that it might be used internally as a drug delivery vehicle and implantable hemostatic agent. To this end, we developed a sterilization/depyrogenation method for chitosan that employed non-thermal (i.e. cold) non-equilibrium atmospheric nitrogen plasma. We then tested the preservation of the biological properties of chitosan after the plasma treatment in a mouse model of bladder cancer, rat model of traumatic hemorrhage, and a pig model of laparoscopic partial nephrectomy. We are now working to initiate clinical trials using plasma treated chitosan coupled with the anti-tumor cytokine IL-12 to treat bladder cancer and to continue developing an implantable chitosan hemostat for use in surgery.
Specialties: Human Anatomy, Alzheimer's disease, Copper, Iron and Zinc, Chitosan, Endotoxins/Pyrogens, Hemostasis, Complement, Microglia, CAA, Non-thermal Nitrogen Plasma Sterilization, IL-12, Bladder Cancer, Drug Delivery