Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Emerging evidence suggests that disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a network of cells that protects the brain from toxins, plays a role in AD onset and progression. Ongoing research is trying to understand how genetic and environmental factors influence BBB function, but the mechanisms underlying barrier disruption remain unclear.

Valeria focuses her research on developing a human BBB chip to study Alzheimer’s disease. She plans to grow iPSC-derived neurons with AD-relevant genotypes and incorporate them into multicellular BBB co-cultures. Using real-time sensing technology, she will investigate how genetic risk factors and environmental exposures affect BBB disruption and recovery, and evaluate potential protective interventions. Her work aims to better understand disease mechanisms in AD and develop a screening platform for potential therapeutics.

Valeria joined ABNEL in the fall of 2024 as a Bioengineering PhD student. Valeria is a 2024–25 ScholarSHPE recipient and an AJC STEM Fellow. She earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Michigan in 2023, where her research focused on muscle stem cells and muscle regeneration. During this time, she also took a course in Tissue Engineering, which sparked her interest in organ-on-a-chip technologies and inspired her to pursue a PhD in this field.

B.S. Biomedical Engineering
University of Michigan ’23
Ann Arbor, MI