Dr. Abigail Koppes-
Principal Investigator

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.

Kat Nilov Wins Funding from Department Fellowship

Congratulations to Kat Nilov, ABNEL's PhD student extraordinaire. Kat just recently won $10,000 in project funding through the Chemical Engineering Chair Fellowship. With these new financial resources, Kat will be able to further their research into the effects of...

Tori Duback Becomes a PhD Candidate

Congratulations to Tori Duback, ABNEL's industry graduate student from Sana Biotechnology, on passing her thesis proposal! Tori joined ABNEL back in the fall of 2022, and despite having her thesis topic changed part way into the program, she's still managed to stay on...