Assistant Professor - Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Katt's research focuses on understanding the human blood-brain barrier (BBB) in both health and disease. Using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cells in a 3D microfluidic device her lab hopes to shed insight into how the function of the cerebrovasculature changes and impacts disease progress. During her doctoral work she used iPSCs from patients with different neurodegenerative diseases to derive brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs), discovering dysfunctional transporter systems that were consistent across cells derived from multiple different neurodegenerative diseases. Continuing from these promising results, her lab will investigate how the BBB changes during stroke. In vitro BBB modeling expertise will be coupled with her experience identifying antibodies that target the BBB. The ultimate goal is to use the insight into the blood-brain barrier gained from microfluidic disease modeling to develop novel means of targeting therapeutics to the brain, and potentially uncovering new therapeutic targets.
Education
Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2018
B.S., Materials Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2012