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.


Abby publishes commentary calling to address racial disparities in research funding
Abby was a signatory on a recent commentary published in Cell calling for increased action to address present racial disparities in scientific funding. More details can be found in a news release and the commentary itself. #fundblackscientists

Jessica received a conference abstract award
Jessica received the Tissue Engineering SIG Student Abstract Award for her submission to the 2020 World Biomaterials Congress. Congrats Jessica!