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Professor Whitehead joined the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2012 after obtaining her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 2002 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2007. As a graduate student under Professor Samir Mitragotri, she developed systems for the oral delivery of macromolecules. From 2008 to 2012, she trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Bob Langer at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, where she developed biomaterials and methodologies for advancing RNA interference therapeutics. Professor Whitehead is a native of Pennsylvania and has a robust research agenda focused on the interface of chemical engineering, molecular biology, and medicine. The ultimate goal of her lab is to engineer safe and effective drug delivery systems capable of achieving therapeutic outcomes in biological models and ultimately in humans. Currently, the Whitehead Lab is investigating the fundamental relationship between biological barriers and drug transport employing RNA interference, a biological phenomenon that induces gene silencing in the presence of siRNA. They are focused on identifying cellular components essential for the drug transport process to design delivery systems using modern chemical techniques to surmount these components. Specifically, her research includes the development of delivery systems targeting the nucleus, intestinal epithelium, leukocytes, and B lymphoma cells.
Admission is extremely competitive with no strict GPA cut-offs; holistic review is used.