Elena Matsa

Elena Matsa attended the University of Nottingham for her BSc (Hons) degree in Biochemistry and Genetics. She then earned her MSc at Imperial College, London, in Human Molecular Genetics before returning to the University of Nottingham for her PhD in Stem Cell Biology. After a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in Nottingham, she moved onto Stanford University as a postdoctoral research fellow. Elena currently works as an Instructor for the Joseph Wu lab and teaches courses on Bioengineering, and Progenitor Cell Biology at Stanford, where she encourages her students to keep the fire in their belly burning.Elena Matsa Yes, most of my time is spent in the lab, and I am currently working on two main projects, both dealing with precision medicine.1 One project2,3 tries to figure out new treatments for people who are born with heart disease and have a mutation that causes the disease. This project is especially exciting since it’s what I’ve been working on since my postdoctoral fellowship in the UK under my mentor Chris Denning. Right now, at Stanford, we have progressed to using nanomaterials to deliver the new treatment to the heart. The other project4 relates to how our genetic makeup affects our response to medications. Some people are fine, but others may experience side effects when taking a drug, which can lead to heart complications. Fourteen percent of people who take antidiabetic medications have heart …