Chelsea B
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Expertise
Neuroscience, addiction, neurodegenerative diseases, evolutionary biology, pharmacology, biosensors, biotech
Bio
Hi, I'm Chelsea! I'm currently a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara working on an interdisciplinary project between the Biopsychology and Chemistry departments to develop aptamer-based sensors that can continuously monitor drug levels in vivo with high temporal resolution. I also recently started consulting for SafePlate Technologies, a biotech startup applying aptamer-based sensors to food safety testing. A few years ago, I completed my PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience, which involved using mouse models to investigate how changes in brain function affect behavioral outcomes. My research focuses on addiction, specifically methamphetamine use disorder, so my dissertation research used molecular techniques to modify processes in mouse brains and then measure how their responses to methamphetamine are altered. My background is in neuroscience and evolutionary biology, and I've worked on researching the evolution of the brain, autism, and Alzheimer's disease before starting my projects on addiction and the reward system. I'm passionate about scientific rigor and making scientific knowledge accessible for all. I'm hoping to use the aptamer technology to advance our knowledge of the addicted brain as well as develop other clinical applications of continuous drug monitoring. Outside of the lab, I love to swim, bake, read, and hang out with my cats. My cat babies, Lara and Pepper, are the loves of my life and often join Zoom calls! During the pandemic, I jumped on the sourdough starter train and now bake bread every chance I get.Project ideas
Seeing the future: genetic contributions to Alzheimer's Disease
Taking care of an elderly loved one who has Alzheimer's Disease is emotionally difficult for many reasons, one of which can be the anxiety that you will one day suffer from the same condition they are. Some cases of Alzheimer's seem to be hereditary, while others do not. What are the differences between these types of the disease, and what do we know about the genes that affect Alzheimer's risk? How can this knowledge help family members prepare and scientists develop treatments?
Reward and Punishment: how a necessary evolutionary mechanism can hijack the brain
The reward system is part of the brain that teaches us what behavior we should repeat. It makes sure that we have motivation to eat, to reproduce, to sleep, to drink water, to exercise. But for some people, their reward systems teach them to be motivated for the wrong things: sometimes drugs of abuse, or behavior that is counterproductive. How can we use our knowledge of the reward system to help people suffering from disorders like addiction or ADHD?
Sensing pharmaceuticals: how new technology can revolutionize our drug measurements
Aptamers are short, single-stranded DNA sequences that scientists can engineer to bind to a target molecule of choice. By labelling them with a redox reporter, we can turn them into an electrochemical biosensor and use them to measure the concentration of our target molecule in the bloodstream or other tissues in the body, real-time with high temporal resolution. What are the potential applications of this technology? One exciting application is using these biosensors to revolutionize therapeutic drug monitoring, a clinical practice in which drug levels are regualrly monitored to ensure doses are both high enough to be efficacious and low enough to prevent dangerous off-target effects. We could also use them as a research tool to collect high quality data that illuminates the pharmacokinetics of our target molecule. What target molecule would you design a biosensor for, and why? How would you use it?