Emily graduated from the West Laboratory with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. She studied traumatic brain injury and neural stem cell therapies for the treatment of stroke. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Georgia with a B.S.A. in Animal Science in 2012. Her research interests include developing innovative treatments for neural injuries by utilizing both in vitro assays and therapeutically relevant animal models.
Emily is currently studying the effect of transplanting human induced pluripotent-derived neural stem cells into the brain parenchyma of a traumatic brain injury model. She is assessing both the differentiation potential of these cells along with their ability to produce neurotrophic factors to decrease secondary inflammation. Additionally, she is determining if the co-transplantation of stromal vascular fraction with neural stem cells can promote neovascularization at the injury site, leading to improved survival of the engrafted stem cells. Lastly, she is studying the ability of biodegradable nanoparticles to direct anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory therapeutics across the blood:brain barrier to alleviate excitotoxicity as a result of neural injury.