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Write Science Right

A scientific & medical editing company by scientists for scientists
We strive to provide the highest standard of excellence in science editing. Every document is given a thoughtful edit for style and presentation, in addition to revisions for correct use of English. Repeat customers and referrals have been the source of our success. Always providing an excellent quality service at a great value keeps our clients coming back, and is the best way to encourage our clients to refer our service to their colleagues and students.

Our company has grown considerably since our inception in 2002. We now have more than 30 talented scientific editors. The combined expertise of our editors enables us to cover a broad range of specialties. Our greatest depth is in the life sciences. Click on your discipline name in the menu to the left to see more information about the Write Science Right editors with experience in your field.

Our editors
• Our editors are full time Ph.D. level scientists. (e.g. postdoctoral fellow, associate researcher, project scientist)
• They have demonstrated a clear, concise and eloquent writing style.
• They have published articles as first author in and served as reviewers for peer reviewed journals in their field.
• And they have proven themselves to be thoughtful, careful editors and have excellent writing ability
• Most have written an NIH grant and received an award.

What to expect
Each client is matched with the scientific editor that is most familiar with that client's specialty. You will be contacted within 24 h regarding the receipt of your paper. Our editorial process begins with a careful reading of your document and a close study your writing. Your editor's recommendations are guided by your central arguments throughout the editing process. Your documents will be carefully read and revised, and re-read and re-revised, until your editor is fully satisfied with the quality of the writing.

Your documents will be returned to you as an email attachment with all suggested changes tracked. You may elect to accept or reject each editing suggestion individually in your edited documents. Reviewing these editorial suggestions can greatly improve your future scientific writing in English! Or if you are in a rush you can simply choose to accept all suggested changes.

Great care is taken to present your ideas clearly, concisely and effectively so that you will be able to present your findings and ideas with confidence. We provide scientific English revision for all kinds of scientific writing including original research articles, scientific review articles, poster presentations, slide presentation, theses, dissertations, manuals etc. Native English-speakers who struggle with the writing process are also welcome to employ this service.

We guarantee 100% confidentiality. Our clients’ data and ideas are never shared with anyone.

Ordering editing service is easy; simply attach your document to an email. Suggestions are shown as tracked changes and inserted comments in Microsoft Word.

Current Editors

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, interactions among neurotransmitters & 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. A. Agrawal

Dr. Agrawal received her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan. She received her doctorate from Yale University where she studied the biochemistry of V(D)J recombination, a site-specific recombination reaction that occurs in developing B and T cells. After spending more than two years as a science journalist, she returned to research, undertaking a project at the Pasteur Institute to identify possible drug or vaccine targets in Plasmodium berghei, a rodent malaria parasite. She then moved to GlaxoSmithKline Research, studying the biochemistry and structure of M. tuberculosis DNA gyrase, an antibiotic target. She has published numerous papers, was awarded postdoctoral fellowships from the National Science Foundation and several European organizations, and won a major international prize for her thesis work.

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 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 large specialized scientific product and service provider.

Dr. Amy Ralston

Amy Ralston received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the Department of Chemistry at Oberlin College.  Dr. Ralston studied Drosophila developmental genetics and the biochemistry of growth factor signaling pathways in the Department of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned her PhD  She is currently pursuing postdoctoral research in mouse embryology and stem cell biology in Toronto, Canada.  Dr. Ralston has co-authored peer-reviewed research articles, review articles, and grant proposals both in the United States and Canada.  She has received several awards and is the founder and organizer of numerous journal clubs and research seminar series.  Dr. Ralston is fascinated by pattern formation and the genetic regulation of cell fate decisions during embryonic development.  As such, she has drawn heavily from the fields of developmental biology, cell biology, eukaryotic molecular genetics, cell signaling, and stem cell and regenerative biology.

Dr. Annabelle (Mimi) M. Belcher

Mimi received her Bachelor’s degree from Loyola University in New Orleans, where she majored in Psychology.  Prior to completing 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.  She received her PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine at the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior.  Her doctoral dissertation investigated the enduring behavioral and functional sequelae of neurotoxic administrations of methamphetamine.  Mimi 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.  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, in situ hybridization, neuroprotective mechanisms  and MRI-based evaluation of brain damage.

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. He is currently teaching at the American University of Paris.

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's degree in biochemistry from California State University, Fullerton and her doctorate from The Scripps Research Institute. 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. Her current postdoctoral fellowship at the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine is funded by the American Heart Association for the study of ischemic stroke models and VEGF/Src signaling. Dr. Lund 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 vivotumor 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. Catherine Neary

Catherine 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 has since 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. 

Dr. Danielle A. Simmons

Dr. Danielle Simmons received her Bachelor’s degrees from the Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she majored in Biology and Psychology.  She received her PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine at the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior with an emphasis on neuroendocrinology and reproductive behavior.  She also worked at Cortex Pharmaceuticals performing behavioral studies of learning and memory. Dr. Simmons currently works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at UCI studying neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Niemann-Pick Type C.  She is the Program Manager for Drug Development at Thuris Corporation focusing on developing therapeutics for the aforementioned diseases.  She has 13 years of experience in academic laboratories with particular expertise in the areas of neuroanatomy, neuroendocrinology, reproductive physiology, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration.  Her knowledge of techniques includes immunocytochemistry and other histological procedures, genotyping, organotypic slice culture, animal models of neurodegenerative diseases, behavioral models, 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 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 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 is a member of the American Chemical Society and AAAS.  Eric has written numerous papers published peer reviewed journals as well as several patents.  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 have focused on Indole-Ketone Condensation Products, Field-flow Fractionation as a potential tool for Analysis of Pollen in Soil Samples; Simultaneous Spectroscopic and Adhesion Measurements With a Tandem IR-JKR Instrument; Development of improved Surface Plasmon Resonance instrumentation for the detection of biological molecules; and Development of MEMS Field Emission Micro-Propulsion systems.

Dr. Heidi J. Chial

Heidi received her undergraduate degrees in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology from Gustavus Adolphus College and her PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Her graduate research using yeast as a genetic model system uncovered novel mechanisms by which haploinsufficient tumor suppressor genes may contribute to genetic instability in cancer cells, and also demonstrated a novel link between spindle poles and nuclear pore complexes. After a brief postdoctoral training experience at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, she became an Assistant Professor of Biology and Chemistry at St. Olaf College where she taught courses in Cell Biology, Genetics, and Biochemistry for two years. She then became a writer/consultant and scientific curator for the Proteome Division of Incyte Genomics. She then reentered the academic research setting as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cancer Biology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine where her research focused on membrane targeting by human APPL1 and APPL2, a pair of RAB5 effectors that associate dynamically with early endosomal membrane structures and undergo domain-mediated oligomerization and phosphoinositide binding. At Wake Forest, she received NRSA funding and worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and The Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University where her research is now focused on the neurobiological functions of APPL proteins and their role in neurotrophic signaling pathways associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, Huntington Disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). She has broad expertise in the biological sciences, including yeast and mammalian genetics, molecular biology, protein biochemistry, cell biology, FRET microscopy, live cell imaging, phosphoinositide-mediated signaling, cell cycle and chromosome segregation, cancer biology, molecular neuroscience, and cell signaling.

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 an individual NRSA from the 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: neuropharmacology, tissue culture, development and regulation of glia, tissue culture, electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, immunohistochemistry, quantitative neuroanatomy, quantitative image analysis, immediate early gene expression, PCR, ELISA, column chromatography, whole-cell in vitro and single unit in vivo neurophysiology, quantitative analysis of neuronal spike trains, auditory brainstem response, stereotaxic surgery, primate and rodent models of neurodegenerative disease, knockout mouse models, epidemiological analysis, and biostatistics.

Dr. Ingrid Lobo

Ingrid Lobo received her Bachelor of Science and Doctorate in Molecular Biology from The University of Texas at Austin.  Ingrid has broad expertise in fields of biological sciences, with the greatest depth of experience in biochemistry, pharmacology, neuroscience, and the molecular basis of disease.  Her particular interest is the biological basis of alcohol and drug addiction.  She wrote a successful NRSA grant funded by NIH. And she has written for a variety of audiences, from students to clinicians. Her publications include numerous peer-reviewed articles, chapters and reviews on the action of drug molecules on ion channels in the brain.  Additionally, she published a book on inhalant abuse for young adults.  She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Texas at Austin.

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 over $1.3 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.  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. Karen Marchetti

Karen Marchetti received her PhD from UC Davis and performed postdoctoral work at McMaster University, and is currently an Assistant Professor at UC San Diego. Dr. Marchetti’s laboratory investigates the mechanistic bases of signals and perceptual systems used by animals in communication.  To examine the evolution of species differences in the colors used in visual signaling her group is integrating studies of genetic and functional characterization of the genes that code for visual pigments (opsin genes) with studies of the visual behavior and ecology of natural populations.  Her work focuses primarily on two genera of passerine birds, the Old World warblers (genus Phylloscopus) and the New World warblers (genus Dendroica).  The different Phylloscopus species scarcely vary in color, whereas Dendroica species exhibit enormous variation in plumage coloration.  The Phylloscopus and Dendroica groups, which both use color patterns in visual communication, are useful for examining how variation in opsin genes underlies species differences in color patterns, color vision, and visually oriented behaviors.  The long-term goal of her research is to integrate genetic, behavioral, ecological and physiological data as a way to examine how properties of signaling behavior, signal reception and the physical environment interact to drive species divergence in signaling characters, specifically animal color patterns and animal color vision.

Dr. Karen Norrgard

After completing my undergraduate degree at the College of William and Mary, Karen entered graduate school in the Department of Human Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her graduat advisor had previously described an autosomal recessive disorder called Biotinidase Deficiency, which is now part of the newborn screening panel (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. At Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., Karen developed PCR-based assays for the detection of various organisms and managed the company's DNA sequencing projects laboratory for two years. She has since moved into the Reference and Identification laboratory at the same institition, where she supervises the laboratory’s output of paternity tests and maintains the laboratory’s QA/QC requirements for court-admissible results.

Dr. Kathryn Edmonson

Kathryn 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. 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. Keith Luhrs

Keith Luhrs received his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University where he majored in Biochemistry.  He received his Doctorate from the University of California, Irvine in the department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.  His graduate work focused on Chagas Disease induced by the parasite Trypansoma Cruzi.  In his post-doctoral research, he studied cell-signaling in the immune systems, specifically regarding the pathways that dictate whether a cell “decides” to live or die – particularly relevant for cancer as well as auto-immune disorders.  Keith currently works for a small biotechnology company that develops monoclonal antibody therapies where he continues to study cancer immunology.  He has received several fellowships including a Cancer Research fellowship from the NIH.  He has expertise in a wide-range of fields including molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, parasitology, virology, cancer biology, histology and animal models of disease.

Dr. Lauren Billings

Lauren received her undergraduate degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.  She completed her doctoral work at the University of California, Irvine studying alterations in basal ganglia gene expression in animal models of Parkinson’s disease.  She continued her work in the field of neurodegeneration by conducting post-doctoral research in the 3xTg-AD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease where she studied the cognitive phenotype of the mice and how it related to various neuropathological changes in several brain regions.  Lauren currently works for Allergan Inc., where she leads studies in behavioral pharmacology.  Lauren received multiple awards while conducting her graduate and post-doctoral work, including individual fellowships from NIDA and NIA/NIH, an ARCS scholarship and multiple teaching and research awards.  Lauren has extensive in vivo testing experience in various animal models of neurodegeneration, behavioral testing and stereotactic surgery.  She also has expertise in various histological techniques including immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization, and molecular biology techniques including protein analysis by Western blot, PCR, etc.  Her general areas of expertise include behavioral pharmacology, statistics and molecular biology.

Dr. Lynda Fletcher

Lynda Fletcher received her undergraduate training in Chemistry at the University of Bristol (UK) where she was awarded a first-class honors degree. She obtained an MSc in Neuroscience from the Institute of Psychiatry (King’s College London, UK) funded by a scholarship from Merck, Sharpe and Dohme Laboratories. Her PhD research, studying the growth and differentiation of neuroblastoma cells, was carried out at King’s College London (UK) and was funded by the prestigious Wellcome Trust Prize Studentship. Her postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, examined the molecular aspects of cell cycle regulation during the irradiation-induced DNA damage response in human tumor cells. Lynda has published many papers in peer-reviewed journals and has 15 years experience in biological research using a broad range of techniques including cell culture, molecular biology, biochemical assays and microscopy. Her areas of expertise include tumor biology, radiation oncology, DNA damage and repair, and cell cycle regulation.

Dr. Mark Walton

Mark Walton received his undergraduate training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he majored in psychology.  During this time, he used psychophysical approaches to study human visual perception.  His doctorate is from the same institution and is also in psychology, with a specialty in behavioral neuroscience.  Following graduate school, he studied the neural control of eye and head movements in postdoctoral positions at Baylor College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh.  He recieved the John Ost Undergraduate Research Award from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a postdoctoral NRSA from NIH.  He has a broad range of interests in biology and psychology, with particular areas of expertise in experimental psychology, vision science, motor control, primate neurophysiology, language development, autism and other developmental disorders. 

Dr. Michael Kruer

Michael Kruer studied microbiology and psychology as an undergraduate at Arizona State University, where he was awarded Sigma Xi status and studied Bacillus genetics as a Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research scholar. During medical school at the University of Arizona, he developed transgenic techniques for modulating neuronal hyperexcitability, focusing on an in vitro model of temporal lobe epilepsy, culminating in the award of an MD with distinction in research. After medical school, Michael worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, AZ, performing high-throughput SNP microarray studies as part of the international collaborative Autism Genome Project. As a postdoctoral fellow, Michael focused on the development of genomic copy number analysis as a translational research tool. He subsequently completed a clinical internship and pediatric residency at Phoenix Children’s Hospital where he applied microarray technologies to the investigation of neurogenetic disorders. Currently, Michael is a fellow in Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics at the Oregon Health & Science University, where he is developing research programs in the genetics and imaging of neurodevelopmental disorders. Michael’s areas of expertise include neuroscience, molecular biology, immunocytochemistry, electrophysiology, biochemistry, genetics with special emphasis on microarray methodologies, neuroimaging, neurodevelopmental disorders with special emphasis on autism, and clinical research.

Dr. Nicholas Morgan

Nicholas Morgan received his undergraduate training 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 focuses 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 several 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. Sarina Bromberg

Sarina’s expertise is in molecular physics, with a particular emphasis in biological problems related to biopolymers. She is knowledgeable in topics ranging from landscape architecture to electrical engineering. As a Connecticut State High Technology Teaching Fellow at Wesleyan University, where she completed her PhD, Sarina designed and taught courses in protein chemistry and thermodynamics for molecular biology students. She continued working in theory of protein folding in the laboratory of Dr. Ken Dill at UCSF. She and Professor Dill wrote the textbook, Molecular Driving Forces. Since working in the Dill lab and ever since, Sarina has enjoyed editing grants and papers to help students and scientists for whom English is a second language. Currently she editing several engineering textbooks and manuals.

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.  Silvia 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 is currently working as a research scientist investigating the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants for use in therapeutic product development. She is responsible for the production of technical reviews and scientific manuscripts in the area of medicinal plants. 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. Sonia Hunt

Sonia Hunt received her undergraduate training at Louisiana State University, New Orleans, where she majored in Biology and Chemistry while working as a researcher at the USDA. She received her Doctorate degree in Genetics from the Dept. of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in which she studied mechanisms of drug resistance and protein modeling in malaria. She also has teaching experience in Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Molecular Biology, and Forensics. She currently works as a scientist at the FBI Laboratory and has been editing both scientific and literary articles since 1996. Her past and present research experience includes the following areas of expertise: cell cycle regulation, animal disease models, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, pharmacology and pharmaceutics, drug modeling, drug resistance, toxicology, epidemiology, endocrinology, immunology, parasitology, microbiology, virology, infectious diseases, behavioral genetics, human genetics, stem cells, metabolic disorders, psychology, signal transduction, gene expression and regulation, agriculture and transgenic crops, food and feed safety, and microbial forensics.

Dr. Theresa Phillips

Theresa 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. During her time at Adventus, Theresa wrote and obtained several grants for hiring undergraduate NSERC recipients. 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. She is currently 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, and participates in batch production of bioproducts.

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 9 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. William M. Brown

William Brown received his undergraduate training and PhD at the University of Southampton, England, in molecular biology and biochemistry.  His thesis research concerned plasma proteins and their role in brain development.  He subsequently completed postdoctoral research fellowships at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Neurologic Diseases and the National Institutes of Health’s Gerontology Research Center (Alzheimer’s disease, tau protein), Johnson & Johnson’s Skin Biology Research Center (skin diseases, homeobox genes), and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Immunology Program (bone marrow transplantation, MHC class I genes).  Additionally, Dr. Brown attended New York Law School, and he received his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.  He is the author or coauthor of more than 75 scientific and legal publications, including three books, on plasma proteins, Alzheimer’s disease, and transcription.

Dr. Zenab Amin

Zenab Amin graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, earning a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Ancient Studies, with minors in Biology and Art History, and a certificate in French. She received her Master's and Doctorate degrees in Biopsychology from Stony Brook University and currently works at Yale University in the Department of Psychiatry. Zenab's research has focused on using fMRI to evaluate the effects of ovarian steroids on neural correlates of cognition and emotional processing in humans, particularly in relation to the incidence of mood disorders in women. In addition, she has investigated how estrogen's interactions with neurotransmitters such as serotonin may influence non-reproductive behavior. Zenab has experience conducting clinical studies of drug effects, genotyping and sequencing studies relating to susceptibility to mood disorders, and rodent studies evaluating estrogen’s effects on spatial learning and molecular effects in the brain. Thus, she has experience in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, behavioral neuroscience, and psychiatric genetics. Zenab has written two high-scoring fellowship grants to the NIH.