Steffany Dunn

Class of 2019

Education: BS in Biology at Willamette University; MS in Biological Sciences at Cal Poly

 

Biography

Steffany is interested in stem cell research because it allows her to couple her passion for medicine with her curiosity for new discoveries. She hopes to focus on spinal cord reparation or neurodegenerative disease therapy, hoping to make a difference in the lives of those who are unable to help themselves. Once she has earned her MS from Cal Poly, she hopes to continue her education and earn her PhD to allow her to progress her research while also being a mentor to graduate students who are just starting out in this exciting field of study.

Steffany is completing her internship in the Dorris Neuroscience Center at Scripps Research in Kristin Baldwin's lab. Under the guidance of Loraine Campanati, she is working on a project to obtain RNA for future sequencing to analyze the gene expression of different cell types (lymphocytes, iPSCs, and neurons) between patients with Autism and their unaffected family members. Other areas of her work include an independent project studying different factors involved in generating neurons from iPSCs in order to further advance the efficacy of disease modeling for specific neurological disorders.