Mary Doan

Drexel Faculty Mentors: Nathaniel W. Snyder, A. Denise Garcia

Mary first got involved with research as a sophomore at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Nathaniel W. Snyder, where her interest in mass spectrometry-based metabolomics elicited. Due to the collaborative nature of her lab, she also had the opportunity to work closely with the laboratories of Dr. Ian Blair and Dr. Kathryn Wellen at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on proteomics and cancer biology, respectively. From this relationship, Mary became both involved and interested in the quantification of metabolites in sub-cellular compartments to understand how the nutrient rheostat is set in physiology and pathological states including metabolic disease and cancer.

In addition to research, Mary served as the President of Drexel’s American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) student chapter. Her leadership efforts have granted her the ASBMB Student Chapter Award for two consecutive years and eventually led to national recognition by ASBMB as an honor society inductee in 2019. Upon graduation, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Beverly L. Davidson at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she engineers and develops adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors to improve therapeutic outcomes of inherited genetic diseases that cause central nervous system dysfunction. Working here has spurred her interest in therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, as well as potential usage of viruses as tools to study metabolism. Currently, Mary has been accepted to PhD programs in Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and will be continuing her studies in the fall of 2020. 

Related content:
Student Organization Spotlight: American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Drexel COAS news) - April, 2019

Last updated: April 2020