Name: Stephanie Moon
Location: Boulder, CO, USA
What do you do? Our bodies are made of trillions of cells that work together to form tissues and organs. I grow many different types of human cells in petri dishes in the laboratory. Cells are grown in special incubators that keep the temperature and other conditions close to what they would experience in the body. I use these cells to study how viruses and genetic conditions cause disease. For example, I’m interested in how cells from patients with Down syndrome are different from cells that came from typical individuals without Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a common genetic disorder that can affect how the brain develops and functions. I use microscopes and molecular biology techniques to try to figure out how having an extra copy of chromosome 21 (the cause of Down syndrome) changes the way cells behave. I hope my research might eventually help us find new ways to cure or diagnose certain diseases related to how the brain develops and functions in people with Down syndrome and other disorders.
What can you see? I can look out the window of the rooms where we grow human cells and see the Flatiron mountains by Boulder.
When I’m not doing science I.. When I’m not in the lab I’m reading books, hiking and taking care of my newt Yoshi’s aquarium.
If you’d like to learn more about Stephanie’s work you can find her on twitter @smslmoon and LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-l-moon-5162a274 Stephanie also writes a STEM blog which you can read here: stemlabandfieldblog.wordpress.com/