Awarded in 2014
Home Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisor: Julie Theriot (Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology), Polly Fordyce (Bioengineering, Genetics), and Robert Tibshirani (Statistics, Biomedical Data Science)

Research Title: The cytoskeletal circuitry underlying directional decisions during neutrophil migration

Research Description: Neutrophils are the most abundant circulating leukocytes in humans, comprising the first line of innate immune defense. As neutrophils migrate towards sites of infection and inflammation they encounter a highly heterogeneous environment. Tasked to navigate through microscale obstacles, neutrophils continuously engage in a decision-making process. Amalia aspires to understand the cytoskeleton dynamics of neutrophils when facing a directional dilemma and the mechanical forces acting on their multi-lobed nuclei in health and disease. To that end, she combines imaging tools with microfluidic environments of varying topography, and pharmacological perturbations.

WHERE IS SHE NOW?

Amalia is a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.