Ecology

Environmental Sciences

Forensics

Genetics

Geology

Public Health

Toxicology

Virology

Dr. Ann Power Smith, Write Science Right Founder

Ann received her undergraduate training at University of California, San Diego, where she majored in animal physiology & neuroscience. She received her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from University of California, Irvine in Biological Sciences in the Dept. of Neurobiology & Behavior. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center in the Dept. of Anatomy & Neurobiology for five years. She has been awarded several research fellowships, including a Cota-Robles graduate fellowship, a Steinhaus graduate fellowship, a postdoctoral NRSA from the NIH, as well as teaching and research paper awards. She has a broad knowledge of biological sciences, with particular emphasis in Neuroscience. Her research experience includes the following specific expertise: animal disease models, stereotaxic surgery, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, quantitative analysis of imaging data, behavioral pharmacology, behavioral assessments, neurobiology of learning and memory, modulation of memory consolidation, stress influences on cognition, neuronal plasticity, interactions among neurotransmitters and intracellular signaling systems, neuroendocrinology, spinal cord injury, stem cells, immediate early gene and protein expression and regulation. Ann is a member of the Council of Scientific Editors.



Dr. Amy E. Cullinan

Amy Cullinan earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology at Oberlin College and her Doctorate of Philosophy from the Dept. of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute, in the Department of Cell Biology with funding from an NRSA individual award from NIH. Amy has over 10 years of biological research experience in immunology, virology, cancer therapy and infectious disease. Her areas of expertise include genotyping, methylation analysis, DNA and RNA viruses, virus-based gene therapy, virus-based nanoparticles, tumor targeting and treatment, immunosuppression and immunotherapy, and bacterial, fungal and parasitic human pathogens and associated diseases. Amy works as a technical writer and consultant for a specialized scientific product and service provider.



Dr. Annabelle (Mimi) M. Belcher

Dr. Belcher graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Prior to commencing her PhD, she was a pre-doctoral Intramural Research Training Award fellow at the National Institutes of Health within the Laboratory of Neuropsychology. Under the direction of Mortimer Mishkin, she developed a spatial memory task for use with non-human primates, investigating the effects of selective hippocampal lesions on task performance in rhesus macaques. After completing her pre-doctoral fellowship at the NIH, she received her PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. Her doctoral dissertation investigated the enduring behavioral and functional sequelae of neurotoxic administrations of methamphetamine in a rodent model of drug use. Dr. Belcher has extensive experience with animal models of brain injury and drug addiction, and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. She has also served as a reviewer for several journals. Currently, Dr. Belcher is a post-doctoral fellow with the Law and Neuroscience Project, a $10M initiative funded by the MacArthur Foundation with an overarching goal of defining issues that lie at the intersection of law and neuroscience.

Her knowledge of techniques includes radioligand binding assays, immunocytochemistry, pharmacology, histology, animal models of drug addiction, stereotactic surgery, microscopy, excitotoxic lesions in non-human primates, neuroprotective mechanisms, MRI-based evaluation of brain damage, cognitive flexibility, and neurolaw.



Dr. Ben Mathiesen

Ben graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, earning Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honors. Ben received his Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan. He is a research astrophysicist specializing in X-ray astronomy, the numerical simulation of astrophysical fluids, and the evolution of the universe. In addition to writing and publishing numerous journal articles in astronomy and astrophysics, he has designed and taught several courses in physics, applied math, technical writing, and scientific programming. An American living in Paris, Ben speaks French fluently and been doing freelance work as a science writer, editor, and translator since 1996. Ben can edit papers in any branch of physics (including but not limited to relativity, cosmology, fluid dymanics, quantum mechanics, optics, waves, nuclear & plasma physics & biophysics), and has also edited papers in the fields of engineering, computer science, mathematics, economics, geology, and chemistry.



Dr. Candace Y. Hsieh

Candace received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego, where she majored in Cognitive Science with a specialization in Neuroscience. She received her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the University of California, Irvine in Biological Sciences. She currently works in the Department of Neurobiology & Behavior at the same institution. She has been awarded several research fellowships, including a postdoctoral NRSA from NIH and the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has a broad knowledge of the biological sciences, with a strong emphasis on Neuroscience. Her lines of research experience include the following areas of expertise: behavioral pharmacology, electroencephalography in non-human primates, in vitro extracellular and intracellular (whole cell patch) electrophysiology, effects of neuromodulators on neurotransmitter release, animal disease models, in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, stereotaxic surgery, sensory system physiology and anatomy, 2-photon calcium imaging in acute slices, in vitro electroporation, neuroanatomical labeling, confocal microscopy, molecular mechanisms of circuit formation, roles of receptor tyrosine kinases in axon guidance and developmental neuroanatomy.



Dr. Caren Smith

Caren Smith received her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from California State University, Fullerton and her doctorate from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Her graduate work was in the field of synthetic zinc finger protein transcription factors with additional, specialized training in eukaryotic gene transcription at Cold Spring Harbor laboratories. Caren received a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association for the study of ischemic stroke models and VEGF/Src signaling. Dr. Smith has published in peer-reviewed journals over the past 10 years. Caren has expertise in library construction and phage display selection, synthetic zinc finger protein assembly, promoter cloning, protein purification, DNaseI footprinting, retroviral and lentiviral production,in vivo tumor models, ischemic stroke models, shRNA expression, intracranial/intravenous growth factor studies, blood-brain barrier integrity, confocal microscopy, and protein expression of signaling pathways. She has also edited successfully funded R21, RO1, and center grants.



Dr. Carol Wenzel

Carol Wenzel received her BSc and MSc in Biology from Carleton University in Canada, and her PhD in Plant Biology from the Australian National University. She is currently doing post-doctoral research on the genetic and hormonal basis of plant vascular development. She has a broad research experience including studies on the developmental cell biology of plant vascular development, and leaf and root formation. Her areas of expertise include plant biology, hormone physiology, cell cycle and cytoskeletal cell biology, anatomy, microscopy, genetics, and molecular biology.
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Dr. Catherine Neary

Dr. Neary received her PhD from Thomas Jefferson University, where she worked in the laboratory of Dr. John Farber on cytoskeletal damage in an Alzheimer’s model as well as the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. She was then hired a postdoctoral fellow in the Cellular Biochemistry Section (CBS) of the Center for Cancer Research. The CBS, lead by Dr. Yoon Sang Cho-Chung, studied all aspects of tumorigenesis related to the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). Using confocal microscopy, Dr. Neary showed that overexpression of the an RII subunit results in its translocation to the cell nucleus. Together with previous work in the laboratory, her work suggests that, in cells with high levels of RII, this subunit of PKA may be responsible for initiating expression of genes whose protein products are important for differentiation of the cell. This data can be used in support of clinical trials in cancer patients whose tumor cells overexpress RI, with the aim of inducing cancer cells to redifferentiate and revert to non-cancerous phenotypes. Dr. Neary continued her work in cell death with a project examining the consequences of calcium dysregulation secondary to compromised endoplasmic reticulum function at the National University of Ireland, Galway, in the National Centre for Biomedical and Engineering Sciences. She currently works at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey on hypoxic injury to mitochondria in neonatal heart cells.



Dr. Chris Tachibana

Dr. Chris Tachibana graduated from Whitman College and Cornell University, and received her Ph.D from the Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon. She has worked as a researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and at Carlsberg Research Center and Copenhagen University in Denmark. As an instructor and guest scientist at Penn State University, she taught general biology, genetics, biochemistry, human biology, microbiology, virology, and molecular and cell biology. Currently, she is a senior scientist and instructor at the University of Washington in Seattle, working on transcriptional control of stress-regulated genes. Her science writing experience includes case studies for Annenberg Media's "Rediscovering Biology" website, and feature articles for life science industry publications. Her research expertise includes eukaryotic genetics and cell biology, protein folding and cellular redox reactions, and regulation of gene expression.



Dr. Danielle A. Simmons

Dr. Danielle Simmons received her Bachelor’s degrees from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she majored in Biology and Psychology. She received her PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) at the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior with an emphasis on neuroendocrinology and reproductive behavior. Dr. Simmons worked as a Assistant Researcher for 7 years in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at UCI studying neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Niemann-Pick Type C with particular emphasis on the role of the loss of neurotrophic support on disease progression. Currently, Dr. Simmons is a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University and is continuing to develop neurotrophin-based therapeutics for Huntington's and Alzheimer's disease. She also worked at Cortex Pharmaceuticals performing behavioral studies of learning and memory and was the Program Manager for Drug Development at Thuris Corporation focusing on developing therapeutics for the aforementioned disorders. She has 14 years of experience in academic laboratories and 4 in biotechnology with particular expertise in the areas of neuroanatomy, neuroendocrinology, reproductive physiology, neurobiology of learning and memory, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Her knowledge of techniques includes immunocytochemistry and other histological procedures, genotyping, organotypic slice culture, animal models of neurodegenerative diseases, behavioral models (motor and learning and memory), stereotaxic surgery, excitotoxic lesions, cannula implantation, hormonal manipulations, in situ hybridization, ELISA, RT-PCR, and Western immunoblotting.



Dr. David Hill-Eubanks

David Hill-Eubanks received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Rice University, where he followed an interdisciplinary curriculum that emphasized ecology, evolution, and environmental science. His subsequent work, leading to a Doctorate of Philosophy in Pharmacology at the University of Vermont, included studies on coagulation factor biochemistry and enzymology, G protein-coupled receptor biology and pharmacology, and cancer biology. He also played a role in developing the enabling technology for a biotech start-up that would become a NASDAQ-traded pharmaceutical company. His current work focuses on the role of calcium-dependent transcription factors in the regulation of smooth muscle physiology. He is coauthor of more than two-dozen publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has served as principle editor/co-writer on numerous successful NIH grant proposals with a total value of more than five million dollars.



Dr. David Pillard

David Pillard received his undergraduate training at Central College in Pella, IA, where he majored in biology. He completed is Master of Science degree at Western Illinois University, Macomb, working on ecological investigations on the Mississippi River. David received his doctorate at the University of North Texas, Denton, studying nutrient inputs predicted trophic levels of a reservoir under construction. He is currently a Toxicologist and Program Manager with ENSR, and is the Technical Director of the company's Toxicology Laboratory. He is a Certified Senior Ecologist and has participated in a variety of projects investigating the potential environmental impact of physical and chemical perturbations, including: toxicity of road and airplane deicer chemicals, impacts of a major marine oil spill on pelagic and benthic organisms, effects of ion imbalances in freshwater and marine systems, and development of long-term toxicity test protocols for emergent macrophytes. Dr. Pillard has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and several book chapters on various aspects of environmental toxicology.



Dr. Elizabeth Bless

Liz earned her Bachelor’s degree at Colby College where she majored in Psychology with a concentration in French. She spent 3 years post graduation working at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Psychopharmacology Department as part of a clinical research team investigating biological correlates of depression. She then received her Master’s degree in Biological Psychology from Northeastern University where her thesis centered on the involvement of the opioid system in feeding behavior. She continued on to receive her Doctorate in Neuroscience from Boston College where she studied the effects of ovarian hormones on mesolimbic dopamine. Dr. Bless subsequently worked as a post doctoral fellow at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center where she was awarded an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship for her work on the chemokinetics involved in the development of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone system. In addition she collaborated with a neighboring laboratory in the investigation of chemoattractants and chemorepellents involved in neuronal migration. Liz’s experience also includes 5 years in the biotech industry in drug development in the area of stroke research. Her technical and research expertise include stereotaxic surgery, neuroanatomy, motivation and reward, behavioral analysis, neuroendocrinology, chronoamperometry, brain stimulation reward, MCAO surgery, learning and memory, video microscopy, confocal microscopy, developmental biology, statistical analysis, immunohistochemistry, cell culture, tissue culture, neuroprotection, real-time PCR, protein analysis and developmental neurobiology.



Dr. Elizabeth Caldwell

Elizabeth received her Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from California State University and Master’s degree in Radiation Biology and Health Physics from Colorado State University with an emphasis on radiation ecology. Her PhD was awarded in Environmental Toxicology and Ecology from the University of Tennessee. She has over 25 years of experience ranging from neuroendicrine system research conducted at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to studies of the fate and transport of heavy metals and radionuclides at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee under an NIH grant. Dr. Caldwell’s broad knowledge and experience include a specialization in biological effects of radiation on humans and terrestrial and aquatic organisms, dose reconstruction, food chain modeling, and regulatory components of environmental contamination and cleanup. Other areas of research and experience include virology, plant physiology, public health, epidemiology, risk assessment, and environmental communication and planning. She has written many technical documents, including USEPA drinking water criteria documents, as well as articles published in trade journals and consumer magazines.



Dr. Eric Brown

Eric L. Brown received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Houston, TX. His graduate work focused on the immunosuppressive effects of ultraviolet radiation on numerous infectious agents including Schistosoma mansoni, Candida albicans, and Lyme spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. During his postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology he received two grants from the Centers of Disease control to study mechanisms of bacterial attachment to host matrix components and for the development of a second generation Lyme vaccine, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Infectious Disease and his research projects involve studying immune evasion strategies employed by S. aureus in addition to developing vaccination strategies for the prevention of diseases caused by this organism. In addition to publishing various peer-reviewed papers, his areas of expertise include recombinant protein technology, cell biology, molecular biology, immunology, vaccine design, and animal models of infectious disease. He also teaches Parasitology and Medical Microbiology and is listed as a co-inventor on three U.S. and international patents.



Dr. Eric Codner

Eric Codner completed Bachelor’s Degrees in Biochemistry and Chemistry, and then went on to complete his PhD in 2001 in Analytical and Materials Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He has multiple patents in analytical instrumentation design. His fields of expertise include analytical chemistry, materials chemistry, surface chemistry, applied spectroscopy, instrument design, MEMS and material processing, nanomaterials and sensors. His personal research endeavors are include instrument design methods as well as miniature systems for chemical analysis, multispectral imaging, and satellite propulsion.



Dr. Heidi J. Chial

Dr. Chial received her undergraduate degrees in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology from Gustavus Adolphus College. She earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Dr. Chial has carried out postdoctoral research at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and most recently at Stanford University School of Medicine. She has more than 13 years of academic research experience. As a postdoctoral research fellow, she wrote manuscripts and grants, reviewed manuscripts submitted to top-tier scientific journals, taught graduate student courses, and developed an NIH NRSA-funded research program. Dr. Chial has published numerous scientific research articles in peer-reviewed journals, and she has received both public and private funding to support her research. She was also a student in the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) 2005 Summer Neurobiology Course. Dr. Chial was an Assistant Professor of Biology and Chemistry at St. Olaf College, where she taught undergraduate lecture and laboratory courses. She was also a consultant and scientific curator for the Proteome division of Incyte Genomics. She recently authored 18 articles for the Nature Publishing Group website Scitable.com on a variety of topics related to human genetic diseases and genomics. She is currently a technical specialist and writer for a biotechnology and pharmaceutical practice group. Her research experience spans the following areas of expertise: mammalian and yeast genetics, molecular biology, protein biochemistry, genetic model systems, cell biology, fluorescence microscopy, live cell imaging, FRET microscopy, phosphoinositide-mediated signaling pathways, cell cycle regulation, chromosome segregation, growth factor- and neurotrophin-mediated signaling pathways, molecular neuroscience, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer biology.



Dr. Ilona J. Miko

Ilona Miko earned her B.A. in Biology from Columbia University and her PhD in Neural Science from New York University. Ilona has received competitive funding from multiple funding agencies, including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Pew Foundation and NIH. She is conversant in a wide range of biological fields beyond her expertise in neuroscience, from cell and organismal biology to environmental systems and epidemiology. Her experience also includes three years in the biotech industry, where she worked on animal and in vitro models of neurodegenerative disease. Ilona’s research involves the effect of serotonin on sensory processing, and the impact of tyrosine kinase receptors on brain circuit development and sensory function. Her specific areas of expertise include the following: neural circuit development, neuropharmacology, physiology, tissue culture, development and regulation of glia, electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, immunohistochemistry, quantitative neuroanatomy, quantitative image analysis, immediate early gene expression, PCR, ELISA, column chromatography, whole-cell in vitro physiology, single unit in vivo neurophysiology, quantitative analysis of neuronal spike trains, auditory brainstem response (ABR), stereotaxic surgery, primate and rodent models of neurodegenerative disease, knockout mouse models, epidemiological analysis, and biostatistics.



Dr. Ingrid A. Lobo

Ingrid received her Bachelor of Science and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from The University of Texas at Austin. She has broad expertise in fields of biological sciences, with greatest depth of experience in molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, neuroscience and the molecular basis of diseases. While these are her areas of expertise, Ingrid is fascinated by a wide range of scientific topics and is committed to communicating science to others. She wrote a successful Individual Research Service Award, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Her publications include numerous peer-reviewed articles, chapters and reviews on the actions of drugs on the nervous system. Ingrid contributed nineteen articles on genetics to Nature Education’s Scitable website on a range of subjects, including genetic recombination, cancer cytogenetics, genomic imprinting and biological complexity. She has written for a variety of audiences, from students to researchers and clinicians. Ingrid has also written and published a book on inhalant and solvent abuse for young adults, titled "Inhalants," which is part of a series of books called "Drugs: The Straight Facts."



Dr. James Marti

James Marti has earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Minnesota, a Master’s degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Arizona, and Bachelor’s degrees in Physics, Biology, and Environmental Studies from Macalester College. His doctoral and post-doctoral research dealt with the physics and physical chemistry of atmospheric particles, applied to problems of stratospheric ozone depletion and global climate change. After a position at a national research laboratory performing computer modeling of atmospheric particle dynamics, Dr. Marti moved to the private sector where he has researched the properties of particulate materials, developed new particle-based products, and managed the development of analytical instrumentation. Dr. Marti has published numerous papers in scientific journals, several articles on science and technology for the popular press, and has served as an editor for a journal of the American Geophysical Union.



Dr. Jennie Close

Jennie received her undergraduate degree in Biology and Chemistry from Whitman College, and was awarded Phi Beta Kappa and Cum Laude honors. She then received a PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior from the University of Washington in 2005 with a thesis exploring the development and stem cell properties of retinal glia. Currently she is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Gord Fishell at New York University Medical Center. Her project there focuses on the molecular mechanisms and timing of inhibitory interneuron differentiation in the cortex and olfactory bulb. She is funded by an NRSA through the NIH. Her areas of expertise include neurobiology, molecular biology, transcriptional regulation, genetics, stem cell biology, and developmental biology. She has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed papers, reviews, grants and book chapters.



Dr. Jennifer Piehl

Dr. Jennifer Piehl received her BA with honors in Anthropology and German from the University of California at Berkeley, and her Doctorate in Anthropology from Tulane University in New Orleans. She specializes in the archaeology and human osteology of the ancient Maya, and has conducted research in Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. Her investigation of community integration, social inequality, and ancient patterns of health and disease constitutes a multidisciplinary focus combining social, biological and medical sciences. Dr. Piehl has also worked on the ancient populations of West Texas, as the first Physical Anthropologist and Archaeologist on the staff of the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University. This research, like her research on Mesoamerican populations, combines study of mortuary behaviors, paleopathology, ethnic identity and social stratification. Such investigations analyze the indicators of health and cultural practices that differentiate subgroups of individuals within and between prehistoric communities. Dr. Piehl’s research incorporates the use of and contribution to the literature in medical pathologies, aging processes in humans, anthropology, and isotopic chemical analysis. She has direct experience in archaeological fieldwork, computer mapping and GPS applications, laboratory analysis of forensic and prehistoric skeletal materials, the study of disease in prehistoric populations, and stable isotope analysis. She is currently the Director of the El Peru-Waka’ Archaeological Project, working in Guatemala’s Laguna del Tigre National Park, and the Bioarchaeologist for the Baking Pot project under the Institute of Archaeology in Belize.



Dr. Johanna (Hanna) Craig

Hanna holds graduate degrees from Texas A&M University in wildlife and fisheries biology, phylogenetic systematics and molecular toxicology, as well as post-doctoral fellowships in neuroendocrinology and bioinformatics at the Vollum and Virginia Bioinformatics Institutes, respectively. Hanna writes, edits, copyedits, and proofreads scientific manuscripts for publication, grant proposals and dissertations and theses. She has written several award-winning grants, garnering $1.5 million. She has authored numerous highly technical publications, has an in-depth understanding of the traditional and latest biochemical and molecular biology techniques and applications, and has worked extensively with animal models. Hanna has conducted microarray studies over a broad range of species and cell culture systems, as well as pathogen/host relationship investigations. Additional experience fields include: molecular biology, neuroscience, oncology, virology, infectious diseases, pathogenesis, pharmacology, psychology, physiology, plant science, immunology, nutrition, aquaculture, clinical trials, development, endocrinology, genetics, public health, transcription regulation (chromatin, epigenetic, promoter binding), translation regulation, signal transduction, cell cycle, protein structure biology, computational biology, scientific advisory, disease database design, database curation & annotation, and statistical design & analysis.



Dr. Joanna Schultz

Joanna Schultz earned her Master’s degree in Environmental and Systematic Biology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and her PhD from Washington State University in Botany. Joanna served as a tenured Professor of Botany at Lewis-Clark State College for 12 years before entering the private industry. She is currently a Senior Consultant for Earth Information Systems, where she is able to dedicate herself full-time to conservation efforts. Her areas of expertise include evolution, morphologic and molecular systematics, conservation biology, ecology, environmental science, including natural resource management, geospatial/geographic information system implementation and statistical analyses. Joanna has procured over $2 million in grant awards and has published in peer reviewed journals, authored numerous technical reports and served as a reviewer for scientific journals. Her past and present research program includes both traditional and contemporary approaches in the study of evolutionary pattern and process, including phylogenetic reconstruction, speciation, population genetics and evolutionary ecology. Joanna’s most recent research is directed toward natural resource management, particularly in regards to special status species. Her work is conducted with a strong emphasis on quantitative methodologies.



Dr. Joseph Zeni

Joseph has a diverse background in multiple medical and scientific disciplines. He holds his Bachelor's of Science in Health Science and his Master's degree in Physical Therapy. After working in the clinical field for 3 years, he returned to school to pursue his doctorate in the interdisciplinary field of Biomechanics at the University of Delaware. He has collaborated with successful senior investigators in the fields of Mechanical Engineering, Rehabilitation, Physiology and Biology and has written grants that were successfully funded by the NIH. Dr. Zeni is the first author on eleven manuscripts that are published or are under review at peer-reviewed journals and is secondary author on many more. He has presented the findings of his research at national and international meetings and currently serves as a reviewer for various peer-review journals. Joseph is a member of the American Medical Writer's Association, has experience as a freelance editor of scientific documents and works well with persons that are not native English speakers. Joseph completed his post-doctoral work and recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware where he will continue with interdisciplinary and translational research in the fields of biology, engineering and rehabilitation.



Dr. Karen Norrgard

After completing her undergraduate degree at the College of William and Mary, Karen entered graduate school in the Department of Human Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her graduate advisor had previously described an autosomal recessive disorder called Biotinidase Deficiency, which is now part of the newborn screening panel (commonly known as the PKU test). Karen’s work then characterized mutations in the biotinidase gene of children ascertained by newborn screening. She also used a baculovirus system to express different forms of the protein in order to examine two possible leader peptides of the secreted enzyme. After receiving her PhD, she worked at Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., developing PCR-based assays for the detection of various organisms and managing the company's DNA sequencing projects laboratory for two years. She moved into the Reference and Identification laboratory at the same institution, supervising the laboratory’s output of paternity tests and maintaining the laboratory’s QA/QC requirements for court-admissible results.



Dr. Kate Fox

Kate completed a PhD in microbiology at the University of Oxford, investigating novel phase variable LPS biosynthetic genes in Haemophilus influenzae. She then moved to Australia and spent five years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Queensland. Her postdoctoral studies focused on the role of DNA methyltransferases in gene regulation in bacterial pathogens. Other projects included the design and development of live, attenuated vaccines for veterinary pathogens. She has many first author publications in high-ranking journals in the area of microbial pathogenesis and therefore has extensive first-hand experience of dealing with journals and their specific requirements. She is now a full-time academic editor, who has edited hundreds of manuscripts, and has experience editing manuscripts in a broad range of biological disciplines.



Dr. Kate Edmondson

Kate received her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in Biomedical Sciences from Cornell University, where she graduated cum laude. While an undergraduate, she was awarded the Merck Science and Technology Fellowship and subsequently worked as an intern with this pharmaceutical company. She received her doctorate in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied the adhesion of neutrophils to P-selectin–coated surfaces under shear flow, and the dynamics and kinetics of the P-selectin/PSGL-1 bond. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and was awarded an NRSA to fund her research. Her postdoctoral research involved the dynamics and structure of fibrin clots formed under flow, both in vitro and in vivo. During her postdoctoral tenure, Kathryn worked as an editorial intern with the Journal of Clinical Investigation, where she developed a passion for science writing and editing. Kathryn has performed bench research in drug delivery systems and organic chemistry, and has co-authored peer-reviewed scientific research articles and successful grant proposals. Kathryn’s particular areas of scientific expertise fall into the general categories of biophysics and bioengineering, with particular emphasis on cell adhesion and migration, neutrophil/platelet interactions, cardiovascular systems, blood coagulation, atherosclerosis, thrombosis and hemostasis, and fibrinolysis.


Dr. Kathryn Nichol

Dr. Nichol completed a double major in Biology and Psychology at Georgia Southern University in 1997. Aside from graduating cum laude in both areas, she participated in an elite honors curriculae that emphasized writing and communication. She went on to University of California, Irvine where she completed a master’s degree in biological sciences, investigating the pathology of a frontal variant of dementia. An avid athlete and coach, she changed fields and completed her doctoral degree in Exercise Physiology, examining the effects of aerobic exercise on endothelium dependent cerebrovascular reactivity. With a combined interest in exercise and neuroscience, Kathryn returned to University of California, Irvine’s Institute for Brain Aging & Dementia. She examined effects of exercise on Alzheimer’s disease pathology, immune function, and cognitive outcomes in animal models. She has had numerous scholarships and fellowships, including a Kirschstein NRSA postdoctoral fellowship from NIH. She was recognized as an outstanding young researcher by the Texas chapter of American College of Sports Medicine. Her current research has been featured in the Society for Neuroscience’s Annual press release packets for the past two years. She has been an invited speaker at several national and international conferences. Kathryn currently works as a medical science liaison. Outside of academic pursuits, Kathryn has been coaching elite athletics and fitness for 10 years. Kathryn's fields of expertise include exercise science, vascular physiology, immunology, dementia and head injury.



Dr. Kelly Engel

Kelly Bonner Engel earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences with specialties in Marine Biology and Ecology from Florida Institute of Technology, and her Masters and PhD in Biology from Boston University with an emphasis on Physiology, Endocrinology, and Reproduction. Prior to completing her PhD she gained a wide range of research experience including ecological analysis, feeding kinematics of estuarine fish, fish physiology, plant and soil heavy metal analysis, and wetland surveying. Her doctoral research focused on identification of male reproductive impacts as a result of environmental contaminant exposure using molecular, histological, and ecological approaches. Kelly has extensive research experience with traditional and nontraditional animal model systems, cloning, sequence analysis, molecular techniques, histology, immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization, and microscopy. She is the primary author of two text book chapters focusing on male reproduction in evolutionarily distant vertebrates, six research articles, and co-author of a funded National Sea Grant. She has received accolades for poster and oral research presentations at national and international conferences. She is currently a literature database curator for a large United States government agency.



Dr. Kristina K. Hansen

Kristina Hansen graduated from Northwestern University with Bachelor's degrees in Chemistry and the Integrated Science Program. Kristina received her Doctorate in Organic Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, where she synthesized protease inhibitors. In addition to her experience with organic and bioorganic chemistry, she has experience with solid phase synthesis, synthesis of organometallic compounds, and enzymatic assays. She worked at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals in the Medicinal Chemistry Department. As a postdoctoral researcher, Kristina has worked in the fields of pharmacology, microbiology, and molecular biology investigating proteinase-activated receptors in mammalian cells, including prostate cancer cells, and identified proteinases from tissues and biological fluids as activators of proteinase-activated receptors in gastrointestinal diseases.



Dr. Kylie O'Brien

Kylie O’Brien received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She received her Doctorate degree in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, where she developed analytical instrumentation for high-speed measurements of neurochemical dynamics in the central nervous system. The focus of her research was examining uptake and release of the putative neuromodulator D-serine in retinal and cortical tissues. As a postdoctoral researcher, Kylie developed an implantable biosensor for measuring hydrogen peroxide levels in the brain at University College Dublin, Ireland and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Advancing analytical chemistry techniques to answer biological questions has been a central theme of her research. Her areas of expertise include separation science (capillary electrophoresis, HPLC), analytical instrumentation development, biosensors, cell culture and CNS tissue preparation, pharmacology and neuroscience. Kylie currently works supporting new method transfers in the pharmaceutical industry for a multinational company in Ireland.



Dr. MaryLynn Zurich

MaryLynn received her BA from Ithaca College in Psychology and Philosophy in 3½ years, cum laude. She spent the next 12 years in the financial and investment community, eventually starting her own investment firm, handling only corporate discretionary accounts. After working with racing greyhounds for 4 years, MaryLynn entered the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, and earned her PhD in Physiological Sciences with a focus on Toxicology. Her primary research projects dealt with hepatotoxicants, including acetaminophen and cocaine. She received part of her training at the Institute of Toxicology in Schwerzenbach, Switzerland, where she learned the technique of using precision-cut liver slices and worked almost exclusively with transgenic rodents. She then returned to the University of Florida where she initiated the technique at the Center for Human and Environmental Toxicology. Upon completion, MaryLynn founded ZTC Inc., a pharmaceutical toxicology consulting firm acting to advise, plan, manage and monitor program and study design for the development of potential drug candidates. This included preparation and review of pharmaceutical company IND and NDA submissions prior to FDA submission, quality assurance review of data and statistical analyses, and primary literature and position paper interpretation. Recently MaryLynn has also been editing medical reports for acute-care hospitals. German is MaryLynn’s 2nd language, and she enjoys editing for her ESL friends and colleagues in Europe. Her areas of expertise include: ESL, medical and/or scientific research, medicine, scientific papers or articles, simplifying complex topics into presentations for the general public, translating from German to English, writing instruction manuals or SOPs, and assisting with sales or marketing materials.



Dr. Michael J. Grey

Michael Grey received his B. S. in Biochemistry with Honors from Hofstra University. He earned his Ph. D. with Distinction from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University, where he developed and applied nuclear magnetic resonance methods for characterizing protein folding and dynamics. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Immune Disease Institute and Harvard Medical School. His research studying the structural mechanisms of transmembrane signaling by the epidermal growth factor receptor was awarded a fellowship from the American Cancer Society. He has coauthored original research and review articles in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to the writing and editing of research and instrumentation grants that have been awarded over $1 million in funding. His areas of expertise include protein biophysics, biochemistry, structural biology, signal transduction, cancer biology, and immunology.



Dr. Natalie Shenker

Natalie Shenker studied medicine at Oxford University, where she was awarded a First Class degree in Physiological Sciences and won a Scholarship in Clinical Medicine. Before entering surgical training she undertook an Honorary Research Fellowship at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. The work that arose from this period has been presented nationally and internationally, and Natalie has twice won the conference prize for best presentation. She has published numerous papers herself as first author. Clinically, Natalie completed her Basic Surgical Training at St Thomas’ and Great Ormond Street Hospitals in London. She also demonstrated anatomy at Guy’s Hospital under the tutelage of Professor Harold Ellis and Professor Susan Standring, and then became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. She proceeded to win an Academic Clinical Fellowship in Pediatric Surgery based in Oxford and London, and secured grant money for projects studying the epidemiological nature of neonatal surgical disease. After overcoming a period of serious illness that pre-empted a change in career, she is now training in Reproductive and Developmental Biology at Imperial College, London. She also holds qualifications in counselling and psychotherapy. In terms of editing capability, she has a full grasp of American English spelling and grammar laws from her previous schooling in the USA.



Dr. Nicholas D. Morgan

Nicholas Morgan received his undergraduate degree at Villanova University, where he majored in Astronomy and Astrophysics and earned Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honors. He received his doctorate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Physics for work in the field of observational cosmology, and has since worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics and The Ohio State University Astronomy Department. His research has focused on gravitational lenses (rare optical mirages formed by the gravity of distant galaxies) and their implications for the age of the Universe, the nature and distribution of dark matter, and the internal structure of quasar accretion disks. He also has extensive experience conducting large-scale digital sky surveys and performing time-series target monitoring, with over 80 nights observing experience on research-grade telescopes. Nicholas has authored numerous articles in astronomy and astrophysics journals, co-authored successful grant-funded proposals for using the NASA Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer Space Telescopes, and has served as a manuscript referee for The Astrophysical Journal.



Dr. Phuong Thi Nguyen Sarkis

Thi Sarkis earned her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in Neuroscience with honors and her PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. She has had 13 years of experience in professional or graduate research in the biological sciences. During the last 10 years, she has focused on virology and immunology through HIV-related research in labs affiliated with Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. She has received several competitive professional or research fellowships and co-authored a number of papers and grants. Her fields of expertise include HIV virology, vaccine science, cellular immunology, and interferon signaling pathways. She is now a post-doctoral researcher at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in the Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS.



Dr. Raymond Price

Ray Price received his undergraduate training in Biochemistry at Whitman College a small, liberal arts school in Washington. He earned a PhD in Pharmacology (with an emphasis in Neuroscience) from Vanderbilt University, where he worked on the molecular pharmacology of serotonin receptor signaling. After graduation, Ray worked for a major Japanese pharmaceutical company in Japan, where he helped inform business strategy decisions and represented the company with outside collaborators and stakeholders, as well as performing research related to CNS diseases. Subsequently, Ray joined a small biotech company in Washington, where he worked on assay development using primary neuronal cultures, as well as being responsible for implementing the company’s business and scientific development programs. He recently joined a startup biotech company in Europe, where he is looking to continue combining his scientific technical background with business experience to “sell the science.” He has worked extensively with scientists whose native language is not English, and has experience editing journal manuscripts, grant applications, and regulatory documents (INDs) for the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. He was also first author on an invited review and was PI on two funded small business research grants (SBIR) from the NIH.



Dr. Renee Demarest

Dr. Demarest received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Temple University School of Medicine in 2005. Her graduate work consisted of studying cyclin T1 regulation during primary human T-cell activation. Cyclin T1 is a cellular factor required for replication of HIV. During this period she received The Distinguished University Fellowship and a Predoctoral Traineeship Award from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. Since 2005, Dr. Demarest has worked as a postdoctoral fellow studying the role of Notch in leukemogenesis in the laboratory of Dr. Anthony Capobianco at The Wistar Institute. She is supported by a fellowship from The National Cancer Institute Training Program in Basic Cancer Research. Dr. Demarest’s graduate and post-doctoral training has been primarily in Cancer Biology, with particular emphasis on cellular signaling. She is proficient in cellular and mouse models of cancer biology. Her technological experience includes all major molecular biology techniques, including Western, Northern and Southern blot analyses, RT-PCR, Real-Time PCR, miRNA identification and validation, Immunoprecipitation, Immunohistochemistry, microarray sample preparation and analysis, cloning, lentiviral and retroviral vector construction and infection, Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP), and kinase assays. She has extensive experience writing and peer reviewing manuscripts. Additionally, she has successfully written NIH R01 grants and numerous fellowships, and has been extensively trained and participated in reviewing these applications. Currently, Dr. Demarest is completing her post-doctoral studies at The Wistar Institute and is beginning her search for an independent position.



Dr. Rob Campbell

Rob Campbell studied physiology as an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he proceeded to obtain an M.D. After an internship at St. Mary's Hospital in Montreal he completed a Ph.D. at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at McGill University. He went on to do postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Washington, University of British Columbia, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, San Diego. Throughout his postgraduate and postdoctoral training Rob received fellowships from the Medical Research Council of Canada. His areas of expertise include: a deep familiarity with developmental biology; neuroscience (in particular developmental neurobiology); transgenesis and gene targeting, including the Cre/lox system; histology and immunocytochemistry; molecular biology and genetics. He is currently approaching science from a new perspective as the developer of a number of software applications designed to help biomedical scientists do their work in the laboratory.



Dr. Silvia da Costa

Silvia da Costa holds Doctoral and Master’s degrees in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Southern California. She holds bachelor’s degrees in physics, journalism and French from California State University, Long Beach and has received numerous research awards, fellowships and grants. As a postdoctoral researcher, Silvia’s past projects included examination of cytoskeletal filament system regulation of membrane traffic in lacrimal gland acini, as well as the development of an experimental disease model for Sjogren’s syndrome, specifically investigating changes in the secretory pathway of lacrimal glands in NOD mice. Silvia also worked in industry as a research scientist investigating the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants for use in therapeutic product development. She is currently a Senior Scientific Editor for City of Hope, a research institute specializing in translational and clinical research in the areas of cancer and diabetes. Silvia works with researchers in the development and editing of scientific manuscripts and grant proposals and is also responsible for the production of technical documents. As a native speaker of both English and Portuguese, with additional fluency in French, Spanish and Italian, Silvia can apply a broad knowledge of multiple languages as she interprets scientific documents written by scientists who speak English as a second language.



Dr. Theresa Phillips

Dr. Phillips studied Biochemistry at the University of Waterloo (Canada) and received a Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Toxicology from the University of Guelph (Canada), where she studied genetic mutations caused by environmental carcinogens. Her background in toxicology lead to research in soil toxicity during bioremediation, and a position at Adventus Remediation Technologies, where she worked as a Project Manager for bench-scale studies in the bioremediation of contaminated soils. She has field experience in full-scale site remediation and has worked on a number of US-EPA-funded projects. With support from Adventus, she obtained a PhD in Environmental Biology from the University of Guelph, for her studies on biodegradation of the chlorinated pesticide, Lindane, by soil microorganisms. Her post-doctoral studies lead her in a new direction as a Senior Research Scientist in Applied Molecular Biology at KAM Biotechnologies in Vancouver (Canada), where she was awarded an NSERC Industrial Research Fellowship to study biodesulfurization using genetically modified microorganisms. While at KAM, Theresa also participated several biofuels and other bioproducts research projects. She is currently a Project Manager and Environmental Consultant at Barenco Inc., where she is pursuing a P.GeoScientist designation, in addition to freelance writing as the Biotech Guide for About.com and owner of ProServe Technologies, a virtual assistant service for the biotechnology industry.



Dr. Wendy Grus

Dr. Wendy Grus received her undergraduate degrees in Ecology and Chemistry from the University of Georgia. Wendy studied the evolution of the vomeronasal system, a vertebrate smelling system, in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan, where she earned her PhD. Her dissertation research focused on gene family evolution based on genes mined from publicly available vertegrate whole genome sequence. Additionally, she has done research on molecular systematics and population genetics of birds and pseudogene evolution. She has co-authored peer-reviewed research papers and reviews for top-tier journals and has shared oral and poster presentations at the annual meetings for the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, the Association for Chemoreception Sciences, and the Society for the Study of Evolution. Earning her PhD from a lab with 80% non-native English speakers, Wendy has extensive experience editing scientific manuscripts to improve their English. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, where she is trying to understand how differences in orthologous chemoreceptor sequence (both intra and inter-specific) translates into differences in chemoreceptor function. Wendy’s experiences have given her thorough knowledge of experimental and computational biology tools to study evolution, comparative genomics, genetics, population genetics, ecology, and neuroscience.