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All of us want to be absolute “gene-iuses”, but how do we get there? Absolute Gene-ius is a podcast in which we interview trailblazing scientists about their career journeys, lab stories, and groundbreaking digital PCR research.
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The season kicks off with a conversation with Dr. Sarah Philo, a recent PhD graduate working in wastewater-based epidemiology to track SARS-CoV-2 and antimicrobial resistance. We talk about the science, the joys of working with sewage samples, pandemic-era academics, career development, and more!
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been around for a while and has been used to track drugs of abuse, chemical waste, and pathogens alike. It may not be the most glorious of samples to work with, but wastewater has proven to be a valuable way to do community-wide monitoring. The COVID pandemic brought new attention and focus to WBE once it was shown it could be used to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus to alert public health officials to outbreaks, often before clinical symptoms presented.
Our gene-ius guest for this inaugural episode is Dr. Sarah Philo, a postdoctoral research associate with the Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats Research Coordination Network at the University of Notre Dame. In our conversation, Sarah talks about how she found this area of research and the “joys” of working with wastewater samples. We learn about how she and her team have used both qPCR and dPCR to detect and quantify SARS-CoV-2 and antimicrobial resistance genes in wastewater.
The conversation also touches on several other interesting and informative topics that include a “one health” approach to public health, the importance of teamwork in academics, considerations when selecting a graduate research program, the importance of passion in science, and how science is the “punk rock” discipline within academia. Join us for this fun start of the series and this first season!
Sarah is a postdoctoral research associate with the Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats Research Coordination Network at the University of Notre Dame. She received her PhD in Environmental Health from the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle. Her PhD research focused on wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and antimicrobial resistance, and she is excited to continue working in this area with the Wastewater Surveillance RCN. She has a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame (2016) and an MS in Global Health from Duke University (2018).
“In my free time I sing in a choir in Seattle, and have been singing with choirs since I was in undergrad.”
For this episode we keep things in house with Marcia Slater. Her more than 20 years of experience in PCR are evident in how well she covers the history of power of digital PCR. Join for some dPCR fundamentals, the ever-present Gene-ius gems on career development, and stories about alpaca farming!
The details of what make digital PCR (dPCR) different from real-time, or quantitative PCR (qPCR) are relatively simple but not always explained very well. Likewise, it’s not always clear which use cases are a good fit for dPCR, and which others simply don’t require the power of dPCR. The power of digital PCR is real, if you understand it.
In this episode we enlist Marcia Slater, a self-described “PCR guru” to explain digital PCR and its power. She covers the basic differences between dPCR and qPCR and then delves into the details of where dPCR derives its power and where it shines. With over 20 years’ experience in helping customers troubleshoot PCR, Marcia makes is easy to understand key terms and concepts related to dPCR, including:
Marcia also covers some great examples of where the absolute quantification of dPCR is a great fit and how it’s even used to qualify and quantify standards for qPCR. Multiplexing and how its used to do molecular integrity evaluations for gene therapy applications is also discussed.
As always with the Gene-ius series, you’ll also get to learn about more than Marcia’s science chops. We learn about her unlikely career path from growing up on a livestock farm to her storied role in helping produce “data so beautiful it should be framed.” We even get into her rediscovered love of raising animals, including her beloved panda alpaca with a name you cannot forget!
Marcia Slater is a Senior Technical Specialist for real-time PCR and digital PCR at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Over the past 26 years, Marcia has held various technical roles with Applied Biosystems/Life Technologies/ThermoFisher Scientific. Her passion is PCR, especially qPCR and dPCR and she has trained many scientists on these technologies. She was awarded a patent for using qPCR for HLA typing in 2007. Prior to joining Applied Biosystems, she was a research scientist at the Schering-Plough Research Institute (now Merck) in Kenilworth NJ. She holds a BS from Penn State and MS from Rutgers.
“I own a farm called Perkiomen Creek Ranch. Note the initials: PCR. Yeah, that was on purpose. ”
Come meet Patrick Hanington and learn about his work in parasitology. We talk about how dPCR is advancing his team’s work in monitoring public and recreational waters for parasites, including schistosomes, which cause swimmer’s itch. You’ll also get some great career advice, funny sample-collection stories, and some unexpected movie references and recommendations.
Parasites may bet a bad rap overall, but they play a vital role in healthy ecosystems. In this episode, we focus on the role parasites play in freshwater ecosystems. Specifically, we’re talking about the role of avian schistosomes, a very interesting parasite that infects waterfowl, but that also uses snails as a host in its larval stage. Larvae also infect humans to cause what’s know as swimmer’s itch.
To guide this conversation we have Dr. Patrick Hanington, associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. As a self-described parasitologist and immunologist he and his team focus on developing multiplexed PCR-based tests to detect freshwater parasites, including avian schistosomes. Their work benefits locals in his area by monitoring pubic and recreational waters for swimmer’s itch outbreaks, but their work also serves as a model for informing human schistosome research, where Schistosomiasis is the second most prevalent disease worldwide, behind malaria.
In our conversation with Patrick we learn about how they design their assays, why they’re increasingly using dPCR instead of qPCR. Beyond the technical work, we get into how Patrick’s career path developed, how what he loves most about his job has changed and evolved over time, his lessons learned in the lab, and how his research and hobbies have blended over time. And because it’s Absolute Gene-ius, you know we keep it fun with some unexpected movie references and a bit of discussion about how science is represented in television and film.
Patrick is an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. He is a trained parasitologist and immunologist, and his research focuses on studying the interface between animals, parasites/pathogens, and freshwater environments. This research often focuses on understanding three aspects of biology: the specific interactions underpinning host and parasite/pathogen compatibility, how host and parasite populations influence each other within a freshwater ecosystem, and how species invasions can disrupt the balance between hosts and parasites. Patrick and his research group often approach these topics using multiple approaches that combine large-scale field surveys with large-scale spatial and temporal studies, molecular biology and specific host-parasite association investigations. Patrick and his team have formed partnerships with the Government of Alberta, non-government organizations, industry, schools/educational groups, and community partners to undertake these ambitious studies. These partnerships have coalesced into an incredible collaboration that advances research objectives and our understanding of important health issues related to freshwater ecosystems.
"A substantial portion of my research group works on parasites that require snails to complete their life cycle. To study many of these parasites, we maintain a snail facility in our lab. This room is often the highlight for any visitors to our lab space. I find snails fascinating and name them as my favourite animal when my 6-year old daughter asks. However, slugs, which are close relatives of snails, are among my most reviled animals - to the point where I shiver just thinking about them (especially the larger ones). I really can’t explain why the shell makes the difference."
For this episode we host two guests: Zoltan Varga and Corbin Schuster from the Zebrafish International Resource Center at the University of Oregon who join us to talk about why zebrafish are an ideal model organism for genetic studies and to tell us about some of the challenges of creating and maintaining thousands of genetically unique lines of the animal. The Career Corners part of this conversation is also super inspiring and insightful.
Zoltan Varga
I was born in Düren Germany and went to elementary and high school in Grenzach-Wyhlen (Germany, until 1986). I did my undergraduate studies, Diploma, and Ph.D. at the Biocenter Basel (Switzerland, 1986-1995). My Ph.D. work (1992-1995) was under the supervision of Prof. John G. Nicholls. I studied the regenerative capacity of an immature mammalian central nervous system in vitro, with the South American opossum (Monodelphis domestic). This was followed by a post-doc in Prof. Monte Westerfield’s laboratory at the Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (1995-1999). I studied patterning, regionalization, and cell fate decisions in the anterior neural plate of zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio) and the cellular movements underlying normal eye development or cyclopia. After that time, I moved back to Germany and started my own laboratory in Freiburg at the Institute of Biology 1, Department of Developmental Biology, under Prof. Wolfgang Driever. During this time (1999-2004), I focused on the development of the ventral neural plate and forebrain and the development of the pituitary placode (hypophysis), lens, and hypothalamus (also in zebrafish embryos). I then moved back to Eugene (2004) where I started my current position directing the Zebrafish International Resource Center at the UO (until present).
Corbin Schuster
Corbin Schuster grew up in the Yakima Valley in the heart of the Yakama Nation Reservation. He completed his B.S. in Biomedical Sciences at Heritage University and completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology at Oregon State University. During his doctoral training he studied microsporidian infections in laboratory zebrafish and concentrated on the development of environmental assays for detection of important zebrafish pathogens. He then completed a post-doc at the Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC) focusing on the expansion of environmental zebrafish assays for large zebrafish facilities. He is now an assistant professor of Biology at his Alma Mater, Heritage University, where he teaches general biology, microbiology, and environmental microbiology, while also continuing to do research in assay development for zebrafish and salmonid pathogens.
Zoltan Varga
Corbin Schuster
Zoltan Varga
"It is family first, then working at ZIRC (or with zebrafish in general). In my free time I love reading about history, fly-fishing, playing music (guitar, piano, church/pipe-organ, and synthesizers), archery, cycling, hiking, and swimming. My family background allowed me to speak Hungarian, German, French and English, and understanding (rather less than more) a few languages due to Latin in High-School. - Aut viam inveniam, aut faciam."
Corbin Schuster
"I enjoy fishing and outdoor activities in my downtime or anytime I can get away from the office/lab. I travel a lot, but the reason I do so is as a food enthusiast as I love trying out new and different cultural dishes of the places and peoples I visit."
In this easy-to-listen-to episode we talk with Ray Ketchum from Agrinos and learn about how he and his team are using microbial consortia to produce products that improve plant health and crop yields. The conversation covers how dPCR helps them quantify individual species within a complex mixture of more than 20 bacteria that are a mix of aerobes and anaerobes. Ray also shares his career path journey and some insightful lessons learned along the way.
My career has involved working with many different technologies relating to plants and plant natural products and working with many different types of plants, in particular medicinal plants. I worked for 20 years on all aspects of the production of the anticancer drug, paclitaxel, from plant cell cultures of yew trees (Taxus sp.). My research encompassed nearly all disciplines of plant biotechnology including the establishment of plant cell cultures, selection and elicitation of cell cultures to produce high levels of paclitaxel in vitro, development of methods of quantitative analysis of paclitaxel by HPLC/MS, establishment of methods for genetic transformation and engineering of Taxus plant cell cultures, and elucidation of steps in the paclitaxel biosynthetic pathway. I received a B.A. in Botany and Biochemistry from Connecticut College; received a Ph.D. in Botany, specializing in Developmental Plant Physiology with Prof. Murray Nabors, from Colorado State University; worked as a post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Donna Gibson at USDA-ARS, Cornell University; worked as a visiting scientist with Prof. Mike Shuler in the College of Engineering at Cornell University; worked with Prof. Rod Croteau at Washington State University as an Assistant Research Professor; and was the Director of the Bioinformatics and DNA Sequencing Core at the University of Idaho immediately prior to joining DianaPlantSciences.
Microbial consortia are groups of diverse microorganisms that have the ability to act together in a community. Such consortia are common in nature and are known to play important roles in many ecosystems but are not always well understood. Soil management and nutrient mobilization are one area where complex communities of microbes are know to be important, whether it be a naturally occurring consortium, or a man-made consortium.
In this episode of Absolute Gene-ius Jordan and Cassie talk with Dr. Ray Ketchum form Agrinos about the microbial consortia he and his team cultivate and produce to improve plan health and increase crop yields. We learn about the challenges of fermenting mixtures of more than 20 diverse microorganisms to reproducibly make products that improve plant health and mobilize nutrients in a completely organic way. As you might expect, digital PCR plays in important role in Ray’s R&D and quality control process. Here, they use dPCR to titer each of the species within their consortia for quality and regulatory purposes, a task that cannot be done by cell culture methods given the range of bacteria involved.
Cassie’s career corner gets Ray sharing his full career development story from undergraduate through grad school and postdoc positions and into his professional career. Ray is generous in sharing his early misconceptions and miscalculations while providing advice to help other avoid similar missteps.
Avid hiker, backpacker, downhill and cross country skier, and jazz saxophone player.
We once again welcome two guests to this episode where we talk about using digital PCR and other methods to study microbial life and survivability in extreme environments. Dr. Brandi Kiel Reese and Lydia Hayes-Guastella from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab at the University of South Alabama tell us all about their work collecting and analyzing samples from places as remote as Antarctica and the Mariana Trench. They share what working in such unique locations is like, how samples are collected and analyzed, and what they hope to glean from their studies. As always, you’ll also get to know a bit more about them and hear their personal stories!
Brandi Kiel Reese, PhD
Brandi Kiel Reese received a BS in Geology with a concentration in biogeochemistry from Southern Methodist University. She went on to complete her MS in Soil and Water Sciences at University of California, studying sulfur biogeochemistry of the Salton Sea, California. After completing her MS, she went on to complete her PhD in Oceanography at Texas A&M University, combining her background in geochemistry with molecular microbial ecology. Her current research is widely interdisciplinary, combining geology, biogeochemistry, and molecular microbiology to provide a more integrated examination of aquatic and sediment biogeochemical cycling. When examining various environments, she is guided by fundamental questions such as: Who is alive? What are they doing? What are the global implications of microbial life within Earth systems? Specifically, her lab specializes in combining state-of-the-art culture-independent molecular techniques (including metatranscriptomics and metagenomics) with high throughput culturing and advanced geochemical analysis to describe the total microbial environment. This systems biology approach to understanding microbial ecology has spanned marine and freshwater, shallow sediments within estuaries and coastal hypoxic zones, deeply buried continental mines and caves, and marine subsurface sediments through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP).
Lydia Hayes-Guastelladf
Lydia Hayes-Guastella graduated with her BS in Microbiology from Michigan State University, working with microbial communities in ophiolite serpentinizing systems. She went on to obtain her MS in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where she studied nitrogen cycling in restored and natural wetlands influenced by wastewater treatment plants. Currently, she is working toward her PhD in Marine Science at University of South Alabama studying under her advisor Brandi Kiel Reese. She is investigating microbial communities in the extreme high pH environments of the serpentinite mud volcanoes of the Mariana Forearc, as well as the nutrient and energy limited deep subsurface sediments of the South Atlantic Gyre through culture independent methods including metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis, as well as culture dependent isolation and ecophysiological studies, looking at what is living there, how they are surviving, and what is their role in their environment. Her research interests are microbial communities’ survivability in extreme environments and how those communities relate to nutrient cycling dynamics.
There are very few remaining locations on Earth that are untouched by humans, and those that do remain are in very extreme environments that are difficult to access. However, accessing and studying life in these extreme environments can provide unique insights to the biology of life. Understanding how simple organisms adapt and survive in seeming unlivable conditions is a unique field of study with the potential to inform and affect the human condition.
We’re joined in this episode by Dr. Brandi Kiel Reese and Lydia Hayes-Guastella from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab at the University of South Alabama. They are both geomicrobiologists that study microbial life in extreme environments like the Mariana Trench and Antarctica. They do an excellent job of painting a picture of how extreme conditions are in these environments and how they manage to collect and preserve samples from such harsh conditions. We learn about the various methods they use to analyze the microbial samples they collect, including the use of digital PCR (dPCR) to detect and quantify transcripts that would otherwise not be detectable given how few cells they’re able to collect.
Brandi and Lydia also share their unpredictable career path journeys, while sharing some insights and learnings from their respective experiences. We learn what they each love about their work and what qualities it takes to be successful at what they do. Once again, we’re reminded of what a small world it is, especially when you’re in a specialty field such as geomicrobiology of extreme environments.
Brandi Kiel Reese
Lydia Hayes-Guastella
Brandi Kiel Reese
Lydia Hayes-Guastella
Brandi Kiel Reese
Lydia Hayes-Guastella
This episode features an easygoing bioinformatics expert. Our conversation with Nikhil Ram Mohan, Staff Scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, is an easy entry into the dry-lab work of bioinformatics and how this informs and augments wet-lab molecular biology work. He tells us about his use of digital PCR to analyze biobank samples, how his first visit to another country was his move to the U.S. for grad school, about his love of teaching, and about being a new father. Check out this interesting episode, fueled by an interesting guest!
I am a computational biologist working in Dr. Samuel Yang’s lab in the Emergency Medicine Department at Stanford University. We work on developing technologies for rapid identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing of bacteria. My research focuses on developing predictive models for susceptibility and minimum inhibitory concentration to antibiotics based on morphological changes in imaging data. In parallel, I am also developing classification models to detect susceptibility based on nucleic acid levels in populations using cycle threshold levels from qPCR.
I received my PhD from the University of Connecticut under the supervision of Dr. R Thane Papke working on the mechanisms driving speciation in halophilic archaea. I surveyed the role of biogeographic distribution, temporal stability, and extensive homologous recombination in populations of halophilic archaea that drive the genesis of new species within the archael domain. My first postdoctoral training was with Dr. Michelle Meyer in Boston College studying non-coding RNAs in bacteria, including discovery of novel ones, definition of transcriptional boundaries, and their roles in periodontitis in the oral microbiome and the pathogenicity of Streptococcus pneumoniae. For my second postdoctoral training, I moved to Stanford to work with Dr. Yang where I used ATAC-seq, Hi-C, and RNA-seq to determine insult-specific epigenetic regulation in neutrophils. Subsequently, I led multiple collaborative COVID-19 studies during the pandemic.
Bioinformatics is a relatively new field of science that is very interdisciplinary in nature. Its practitioners use a mixture of biology, chemistry, physics, statistics, and computer science to develop methods and software aimed at helping integrate and understand biological and other data.
Our guest for this episode is Nikhil Ram Mohan, Staff Scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He describes bioinformatics as the bridge to understanding biology. We learn about his international studies and path that brought him to this current role and field of study, and then dive into some of his recent work. Here he and his team analyze biobank samples using digital PCR (dPCR) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) and compare results from the two while correlating results with additional data available for each sample to determine if SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection and quantification in blood can serve to help predict potential for patient coinfection. Their work found that dPCR was able to detect SARS-CoV-2 in samples that were negative when evaluated by qPCR and that a series of biomarkers can help predict coinfection.
We also get to hear a bit of Nikhil’s interesting personal story, which includes his undergraduate engineering studies in India and leaving his native country for the first time when he moved to the U.S. for graduate school. We learn how he managed changes in culture, what he loves about teaching, and about him being a new father.
I am not sure what to say here. I lead a pretty mundane life.
For this episode we host another of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s own. Dave Bauer is a PhD-educated Application Scientist specializing in qPCR and digital PCR. His knack for using analogies to explain difficult concepts helps illuminate the benefits of digital PCR and the statistical aspects of this analytical method. This is a great overview episode that also touches on specific applications such as SNP detection. We also learn about Dave’s career path, hear some valuable advice, and get a sense of how poorly most us are at evaluating probabilities.
Dave Bauer, PhD, is a Field Application Scientist for real-time PCR and digital PCR at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He has broad experience and scientific education ranging from software programming and cell culture to quantum mechanics and evolutionary biology. Dave’s passion for digital PCR relates to it residing at an intersection between multiple scientific disciplines, providing a complement to his background. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher he obtained a PhD in Molecular Biophysics investigating the physical chemistry of viral genome packaging, worked as a researcher in DNA forensic science, and helped develop real-time PCR assays for cellular therapeutics. Outside of work he loves to spend time with his family and loving doggies, as well as routinely learning and tackling (with varying degrees of success) home renovation projects.
PCR was discovered in 1983 by Kary Mullis and Michael Smith, who were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. Since then, PCR has been a cornerstone method that has been a pillar of discovery and applied science. The various types of PCR are sometimes confusing, and the relative pros and cons of each method are not always clear, which is why it’s so great to have this episode’s guest explain them all in a simple and clearcut way.
Dave Bauer, PhD, is an Application Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific who specializes in real time PCR (qPCR) and digital PCR (dPCR). He has an educational background in biophysics, mathematics, and biochemistry, but what’s more important is that Dave has a real knack for using analogies to make complex topics understandable and approachable. In this episode we hear Dave explain the difference between qPCR and dPCR, the importance of Poisson statistics to dPCR, dead volume, reaction chamber volume consistency, and more. We learn how qPCR and dPCR complement each other and how they relate to sequencing methods for applications like single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection.
As you’ve come to expect from Absolute Gene-ius, you also get a good sense of who Dave is and how he got to his current role. We learn about how he knew right away that academia wasn’t for him, how he ended up in a forensics job straight out of school, and how he eventually landed in his current Application Scientist role. Dave shared some great insights and advice, including how students should care less about their degree’s name and more about what techniques they’re learning and using in their studies.
My dream job has always been to open my own distillery themed upon biology and chemistry education as part of the customer’s experience.
We close this season with our hosts sharing a retrospective conversation about the start of the Absolute Gene-ius series, the wonderful guests hosted, favorite moments, and lessons learned. In addition to the season recap, Cassie and Jordan also interview each other to extract some “Cassie’s Career Corner” insights about their respective backgrounds and how they each ended up in their current roles. Join us to get to know your hosts a bit better and to reflect on this amazing inaugural season.
It’s not every day that you discover a new podcast series you like, and it’s not every day that you start hosting a podcast series either! To bookend this inaugural season of Absolute Gene-ius, Jordan and Cassie interview each other to provide a retrospective look at the season and to learn more about each other and their respective career paths.
In their recap of the season, we revisit the diversity of applications that guests used digital PCR to progress, from monitoring wastewater for infectious diseases like SARS-CoV-2, to monitoring zebrafish populations to ensure research organizations around the world have reliable model organisms, to looking characterizing microbial diversity in some of the Earth’s most extreme environments. We also get to hear about each hosts’ favorite moments, biggest surprise, what they’re proud of, and what they love most about the series they’re helping build.
Jordan and Cassie also share a bit more about their individual career paths and journey within science. We learn how Jordan parlayed a childhood connection to a Claymation elf dentist into being a published author his career in marketing life science products. We learn how Cassie’s had several jobs that led to eye-opening experiences that eventually led to her finding a home in technical marketing and communication. Don’t miss this season 1 recap to get to know your hosts a bit better and to hear about what’s coming soon!
Jordan Ruggieri
Jordan Ruggieri
I have never had a cavity, was born without wisdom teeth, had 9 teeth pulled as a kid, had braces for 6 years, and have two dental implants. If you can’t tell, I LOVE going to the dentist.
Cassie McCreary
One of my proudest moments is that I won a Magic Tree House book competition when I was 7. My story suggestion was chosen from more than 3,000 entries! It was about Amelia Earhart, one of my personal heroines.
This webinar will cover dPCR basics and the differences between dPCR and qPCR and provide an overview of the QuantStudio Absolute Q dPCR System.
Are you up for the challenge? Play IdentiFIND to search for and find your target items and molecules.
Jordan Ruggieri, while not a self-proclaimed “gene-ius”, received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cal State Fullerton and his MBA from Cal State Monterey Bay. At Cal State Fullerton he served as a President’s Scholar and spent three years in a research lab studying manganese oxidation in bacteria for potential bioremediation purposes. He has spent ten years working in the biotechnology industry holding positions in both research & development and product marketing across the life science and clinical diagnostics markets. Jordan is currently a Regional Marketing Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific overseeing the digital PCR product line. He loves telling stories about how scientists use these technologies for incredible applications that enable positive change across the globe. Jordan is a nerd at heart and loves to read, his favorite series being The Wheel of Time, The Stormlight Archive, and The Lord of the Rings.
Cassie McCreary, while also not a self-proclaimed “gene-ius,” comes from eclectic educational and professional backgrounds. She received her B.A. in history with a minor in forensic studies and her M.A. in Emerging Media from Loyola University Maryland, additionally pursuing advanced studies in forensic DNA analysis and toxicology. Most recently, she completed her M.S. in Biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University. Cassie’s career began in clinical research, carrying out research protocols focusing on studies in the pediatric neurology, pediatric anesthesiology, and OB-GYN spaces. After working in a clinical setting, she ultimately decided to tap into her creative side, working in social media marketing for a clinical research organization, traditional and digital marketing in the chemicals industry, and most currently as a Digital Marketing Manager in the Genetic Sciences Division of Thermo Fisher Scientific. In her spare time, she enjoys pursuing an equally eclectic collection of hobbies: hiking with her husband and two dogs (Donut, a corgi, and Boo, a labradoodle), biking, playing the guitar, horseback riding, reading, podcasting (of course), and is looking to add Brazilian Jiujitsu to this list soon!
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For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
