Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan
I was not one of those students who knew in elementary school that I should pursue a career in STEM. In fact, I was intimidated by those subjects, and even though it wasn’t all that long ago, it was still a time when girls weren’t really encouraged to try math and science. Then I discovered the field of biomedical engineering and realized this was a way I could really help people and make a positive impact on their lives. So even though I doubted myself a little at first, when I entered Vanderbilt University for my undergraduate studies, I dove in and joined a research lab. I discovered that not only was I perfectly capable, I loved it!
Luckily, I’ve had strong role models and mentors throughout the years, from Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, whose biophotonics lab I joined at Vanderbilt, to Christine O’Brien, who was then a PhD student but is now on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis. And of course, there are my advisors at the University of Michigan, Zhen Xu and Tim Hall. Wherever I end up teaching and researching, I plan to pay it forward, and I hope I can inspire someone the way they inspire me.
My current work is on histotripsy, a technique that uses highly focused ultrasound waves to destroy cancer cells non-invasively (without surgery). Histotripsy, which was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for liver cancer treatment, destroys tumors without incisions, heat, or ionizing radiation. Sometimes, the ultrasound waves can scatter and de-focus as they move through tissues, limiting the efficacy of histotripsy at certain locations in the body. In my research, I work to correct for this de-focusing by improving the way that the ultrasound waves travel through the body. The ultimate goal is to get to a point where clinicians can expand the range of effective treatment locations, so histotripsy therapy becomes feasible for greater numbers of patients.
I’ll be applying for tenure-track positions soon, and I know that’s a difficult process, but I think the things I learned as a Faculty First-Look Fellow are going to help a great deal.