Awarded in 2015
Home Department: Chemical Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Andrew Spakowitz (Chemical Engineering), Sarah Heilshorn (Materials Science & Engineering), Sebastian Doniach (Applied Physics, Physics, Photon Science), and Joseph Wu (Cardiovascular Medicine, Radiology)

Research Title: Topological control of DNA organization”

Research Description: Human gene therapy offers a multitude of clinical opportunities for the treatment of a variety of diseases, including cancer and genetic disorders. However, despite persistent efforts to realize the therapeutic potential of gene therapy, there is still no delivery system that provides safe, efficient, and enduring gene delivery. Brad is working to combine physical molecular simulations, advanced structural characterization, and live cell experiments to develop an interdisciplinary rational framework for designing therapeutic gene delivery systems that are engineered from molecular principles, rather than trial-and-error techniques.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Brad is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Kevin Cheung’s lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.