BMHA Training Faculty are eligible to serve as the primary mentor for Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging Training Program graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Phil Abitua is an assistant professor in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington. The Abitua lab works on annual killifish, an emerging model to study aging due to its remarkable adaptation to an ephemeral environment, which compressed its lifespan to approximately 4-6 months. We are interested in how environmental pressures […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Innovation in protein design to target aging and age-related disease Dr. Baker has pioneered methods to predict and design the three-dimensional structures of proteins. He is the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor in Biochemistry and an adjunct professor of Genome Sciences, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physics. He serves as the Director of […]
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Division of Gerontology, Medicine, Psychiatry
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Decline in blood-brain barrier function during aging Dr. Banks is Professor, Division of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine and Associate Director for Research of the Puget Sound Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center. The major focus of his research is the study of how the brain and body communicate with one another through the transfer of […]
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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Medicine
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Genome replication and its role in aging Dr. Bedalov is an Associate Member in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Bedalov is a bone marrow transplant specialist who treats people for blood disorders, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and myelodysplastic syndrome. He runs an active research laboratory that uses S. […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Basia Belza, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA, is the de Tornyay Endowed Professor in Aging at the UW School of Nursing and an Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health. As an Investigator at the Health Promotion Research Center she served as lead of the CDC-funded Healthy Brain Research Network. Her program of research includes […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
The Berg lab studies the effect of mutations that disrupt cell fate and cell migration during development. Using Drosophila as a model system, they explore how gene dysregulation impacts organ structure and function, leading to reduced viability and fertility. The underlying cell and molecular mechanisms involved in these processes also contribute to human disorders, for […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Beth Buffalo is a neuroscientist whose lab focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms that support learning and memory. Dr. Buffalo is widely recognized for her studies on the relationships between eye movements and neural activity in the hippocampus and adjacent cortical structures, and for her discovery of grid cells in the macaque entorhinal cortex […]
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Departments
Chemistry, Molecular Engineering and Science Institute
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
The Bush Lab works at the interface of analytical and biophysical sciences. We develop mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry technologies that provide novel insights into structures and assembly of biomolecular machines and biotherapeutics, and apply these technologies to targets that are heterogeneous, dynamic, and interact with complex chemical matrixes. […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Davis is a movement disorder neurologist and researcher at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System and and Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying the production and spread of pathogenic protein aggregation in aging and aging-related neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Parkinson’s […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty, Invertebrate Core Director, NSC Core Director, Shock Center Executive Committee
Aneuploidy, evolution, and aging. Dr. Dunham develops and applies genomic tools to study genome evolution and genetic variation in yeast and humans. She has a special interest in how gene and chromosome copy number variation contributes to adaptation, the mechanisms by which such variation arises, and the relationship between aneuploidy and aging. They utilize the budding […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Eisenberg is a biological anthropologist who studies how evolution has shaped human biology and aging. Dan’s research is primarily on telomere biology and has principally been in collaboration with population-based studies in non-western contexts such as the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey in the Philippines and the Tsimane’ Amazonian Panel Study in Bolivia. […]
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Departments
Biological Structure, Lab Medicine and Pathology
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
The Gillespie Lab strives to understand how the neural mechanisms underlying memory processes degrade over the course of healthy aging and in the context of neurodegenerative disease. The lab uses in vivo electrophysiology to record simultaneously from hundreds of hippocampal neurons in rats as they learn and perform complex memory-dependent tasks. We use advanced computational […]
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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Genome Sciences
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Harris uses population genetic theory and high-throughput biological sequence analysis to study recent evolutionary history in humans and other species. One are of particular interest is the evolution of mutagenesis the forces that control DNA replication fidelity, the mutational breakdown of established traits, and the ultimate origin of new traits. Although DNA is replicated and […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Suzanne Hoppins joined the UW Biochemistry faculty as an assistant professor in 2013 and was promoted to Associate professor in 2020. She has studied different aspects of mitochondrial biology for her entire career. As an undergraduate researcher and then a graduate student she studied mitochondrial protein import, a complex system of translocation and sorting […]
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Molecular Engineering and Science Institute
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty, Training Program Alumnus
Dr. Kennedy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. He has a strong interest in the role of the fidelity mechanisms that cells employ to maintain genetic information and the ways these mechanisms are involved in diseases of aging. Research in the Kennedy lab focuses on developing and using Next-Generation […]
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Immunology, Lab Medicine and Pathology
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Khor’s lab is focused on understanding healthy aging through the lens of Down syndrome. Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal condition, and immune dysregulation significantly impairs the health of these individuals. This is manifest by predisposition to autoimmunity, susceptibility to infections and impaired vaccine response, amongst other features. Recent work in the lab […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Aging factors in complex heritable conditions. Dr. King’s group uses next generation sequencing approaches to identify genes responsible for complex human conditions. Since the 1970s, her group has exploited approaches from genetics, then molecular biology, then genomics to discover and characterize genes for inherited disease. There are four areas of her work that offer insights […]
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Departments
Biochemistry, Chemistry, Pharmacology
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Understanding of molecular recognition, and interactions that play important roles in aging and disease Dr. Klevit is the Edmond H. Fischer/WRF Endowed Chair in Biochemistry, an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology, and Adjunct Professor of Chemistry. Current research in Dr. Klevit’s laboratory is directed towards an understanding of fundamental molecular recognition events involved in the process […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
As an investigator at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Dr. Kraemer’s research explores how protein aggregation contributes to neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Kraemer has developed animal models of the TDP-43 pathology seen in ALS and the tau pathology seen in Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias using both transgenic mice and transgenic C. elegans. Dr. […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Prof. Patricia Kramer is an evolutionary biomechanist whose research interest spans millions of years from the origins of bipedalism to the locomotion patterns of modern humans. She has investigated recovery of function after lower limb injury, assessed osteoarthritis development in aging humans and nonhuman primates, examined the energetics of walking on slopes with burdens, and […]
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Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
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Dr. Kwon has helped to pioneer new tools and knowledge related to the genetics of skeletal disease and regeneration. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. and a member of the Institute for Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine. He is also a member of the MCB and M3D graduate programs and adjunct […]
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Administrative Core Faculty, BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Geropathology and mouse models in translational geroscience Dr. Ladiges is Professor of comparative medicine and Director of the Geropathology Research Network and the UW Nathan Shock Center Geropathology Resource. He has extensive experience in the pathobiological evaluation and modeling of mice for preclinical aging and intervention studies and has been a leader in the application […]
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Computer Science, Genome Sciences
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AI Core Director, BMHA Executive Committee, BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty, Shock Center Executive Committee
Understanding aging through explainable machine learning The Lee lab seeks to develop explainable AI for life sciences. Explainable in this context means understanding which features drive the prediction. The Lee lab has been collaborating with the Kaeberlein lab to develop and apply machine learning to aging biology, with the initial goal of using noisy human […]
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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Nicholas Lehrbach’s research focuses on discovering the cellular pathways that normally function to remove unwanted proteins, and how they become mis-regulated in disease. High levels of abnormal or damaged proteins is a cellular feature of aging, cancer, adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases, and many rare genetic disorders. Dr. Lehrbach and his team use C. elegans to […]
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Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, Medicine
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Nicole Liachko, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Washington, and a Core Investigator in the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VA PSHCS). Dr. Liachko’s research program centers on understanding the biology […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty, Metabolomics Core Director, NSC Core Director, Proteomics Core Director, Shock Center Executive Committee
Applications of mass spectrometry in the biology of aging The focus of Dr. MacCoss’ laboratory is in the development and application of cutting edge mass spectrometry based technologies for the analysis of complex protein mixtures. His primary area of expertise is in protein biochemistry, nanoflow liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry instrumentation, and computational analysis of mass […]
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Bioengineering, Lab Medicine and Pathology, Radiology
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BMHA Co-Director, BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty, Shock Center Director, Shock Center Executive Committee
Dr. Marcinek joined the UW faculty in 2006. He has over 15 years of experience developing and applying innovative tools to study mitochondrial biology in chronic disease and aging. A main focus of his laboratory is to understand how age-related changes in mitochondrial function at the biochemical and organelle levels translate to changes in in […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty, Invertebrate Core Faculty, NSC Development Core, Shock Center Executive Committee
Dr. Mendenhall’s laboratory utilizes the nematode C. elegans to understand how and why genetically identical populations of cells and animals in the same environment age differently. How much and what kind of physiological variation is intrinsic/chance based, or is programmed and heritable? The lab takes the approach of directly observing events inside of living cells […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Miller’s lab uses C. elegans to define relationships between proteostasis, the responses to hypoxia and hydrogen sulfide, and fasting. This work is also at the crux of understanding the relationships between stress response and aging. She has found that protein homeostasis is disrupted by exposure to specific hypoxic O2 concentrations [66]. One goal of […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Molecular Basis of Aging The goal of the Moreno lab is to understand how the function and regulation of ion channels change during the natural process of aging. Aging comes with a vast set of impairments, hearing loss, cardiac dysfunction, and hypertension, are only a few on the list. Most of these impairments are caused […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Mitochondrial quality control in aging. Much of Dr. Pallanck’s current work stems from his studies of Drosophila homologs of the Parkinson’s disease-related genes parkin and PINK1. His work on Parkin and PINK1 led to his hypothesis that these factors promote the degradation of damaged mitochondria through mitophagy, a mitochondrial-selective form of autophagy. Work in many […]
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Departments
Biology, Lab Medicine and Pathology
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Executive Committee, HALO Faculty, Metabolomics Core Director, Shock Center Executive Committee
Dr. Promislow studies natural genetic variation in aging and reproduction. His research is focused on aging in several systems – the fruit fly, companion dogs, and humans. He uses a diversity of approaches in his lab, including molecular and quantitative genetics, evolutionary theory, and systems biology to construct and analyze genetic and metabolomic networks. Among […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Mechanisms of tissue dysfunction during aging. Dr. Regnier is a Professor and Associate Chair for Research & Development in the department of Bioengineering at UW. Dr. Regnier’s research goal is to develop novel approaches to prevent or restore age- and disease-related loss of muscle function. Approaches include protein, cell & tissue engineering and gene therapy. […]
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BMHA Executive Committee, BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Genomic instability, cancer and aging The main focus of Dr. Risques’ research is the study of the molecular mechanisms that link genomic instability and aging. The main molecular alterations that her lab studies are telomere shortening, mitochondrial dysfunction, and age-related accumulation of somatic mutations. She has published on comparative analyses of aging relating telomere length […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Ariel Rokem received a Bachelors and Masters degree in Biology and Cognitive Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2002 and 2005). He then received a PhD in neuroscience from UC Berkeley (2010) and additional postdoctoral training in computational neuroimaging at Stanford (2011 – 2015). He was a Senior Data Scientist at the University of […]
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Biochemistry, Biology, Genome Sciences
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Adult stem cell aging Dr. Ruohola-Baker’s laboratory studies the molecules and cellular properties that are required for stem cell states and their differentiation capacity. During the recent years the laboratory has shown that microRNAs and the HIF pathway play key roles in regulating adult and embryonic stem cell self-renewal in model organisms as well as […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Schweppe’s research interests focus on the implementation of millisecond informatics to enable intelligent data acquisition strategies. His research group applies these technologies to quantify proteins as a readout for diverse cell states with broad interests spanning microbial protein interactions, small-molecule binding events, pre-clinical proteomics, and profiling primary tissue samples. Dr. Schweppe’s research group builds […]
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Departments
Bioengineering, Pediatrics, Seattle Children's Research Institute
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Shih is an Associate Professor at Seattle Children’s Research Instituteand the University of Washington. The research performed by his teamhas led to new discoveries related to the consequence of small-scalestroke, mechanisms of neurovascular coupling, and regulation of bloodflow through brain capillaries by pericytes. His research seeks to obtain aclear understanding the basic biology underlying […]
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Departments
Biological Structure, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Singhvi’s lab investigates the role of glia in neural function, aging and disease. Our nervous system has two major cell types, glia and neurons, in about equal numbers. Glia communicate with neurons to modulate neuron shape and function, and thereby neural circuit activity and animal behaviors. To define the molecular basis of neural aging, […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Mariya Sweetwyne (she/her) is a Cell Biologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP) in the UW School of Medicine. She earned a B.S. in Zoology and a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Washington, followed by a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Cardiac metabolism and mitochondrial energetics The Tian Lab studies cell metabolism and mitochondrial function in living systems. Our goal is to improve cellular resistance to environmental stresses and diseases through engineering metabolism. […]
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Genome Sciences, Lab Medicine and Pathology, Medical Genetics
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Age-associated changes in synaptic non-coding RNAs Dr. Valdmanis joined the University of Washington as an Assistant Professor in 2017. His lab studies genetic risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and gene therapy methods for therapeutic intervention. Through a series of studies focusing on long-read sequencing of the genome […]
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BMHA Executive Committee, BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty, Proteomics Core Director, Shock Center Executive Committee
Dr. Villen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Genome Sciences. She earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona. During her postdoc at Harvard Medical School she was involved in several technology developments that enabled the robust characterization of thousands of phosphorylation sites: from biochemical methods to mass spectrometry acquisition strategies […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
BiographyOscar Vivas, Ph.D., is a Junior Faculty in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington. Dr. Vivas is interested in understanding how aging alters the autonomic nervous system. Why the autonomic nervous system? As we age, we perceive a decline in our ability to maintain constant internal conditions (homeostasis) at rest […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Yan is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Biology at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is a neuroscientist interested in the evolutionary and social dimensions of senescence. She uses emerging invertebrate model systems, such as the bee and the octopus, to investigate how the nervous system organizes, encodes, and mediates end-of-life transitions and death. […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Webel’s clinical research laboratory focuses on generating high-quality evidence to help people with HIV live and age well, with an emphasis on diet and exercise. She has spoken and published widely in this area with over 150 manuscripts on HIV and aging, behavioral science, and global health. Her work has been funded by the […]
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BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Wills joined the UW Biochemistry faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2015. Her research is focused on understanding the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of regeneration using the diploid frog Xenopus tropicalis as a model organism. Loss of regenerative capacity is a fundamental aspect of aging biology. The Wills lab uses high-throughput sequencing approaches (RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq) […]
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BMHA Co-Director, BMHA Training Faculty, Development Core Director, HALO Director, HALO Faculty, Shock Center Director, Shock Center Executive Committee, Training Program Alumnus
Dr. Young joined the UW faculty in 2016 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Lab Medicine and Pathology. Her research goal is to understand the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying age-related disorders, with a particular focus on neurodegenerative disorders. She has developed human stem cell models to further this line of research, as […]
