Erika Wheeler
Investigation and Characterization of Sex-Based differences in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Irritable Bowel Disease are both medical conditions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. IBS alone affects 60 to 70 million people in the United States and women are twice as likely to be diagnosed than men. Erika’s work focuses on investigating and characterizing sex-based differences in IBS and IBD patients.
Erika joined ABNEL as a bioengineering BS/MS student in January 2021. She began her master thesis in ABNEL in Fall 2021. Prior to this, she co-oped at Sanofi and Cygnal Therapeutics in their oncology department investigating and validating novel oncology targets.
Best wishes to Francesco!
Francesco Fontana joined the lab as a visiting scholar over the winter from Italy and conducted experiments in magnetism on cells. He will hopefully defend his thesis in the coming months. Good luck Francesco!
Lab goes on a winter retreat in Vermont
Enjoying a fresh snowfall, the ABNEL and LNNR labs spent the weekend near White River Junction, Vermont. The members split the time playing ultimate spoons, playing in the snow, skiing at Killington, and racing in Mario Kart.