Our alumna Dr. Krista Freeman (’11 BS Honors Physics, Distinguished CSU Alumna ‘16) has been studying biomedically relevant nanoparticles since her time at CSU.  Currently, as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Freeman works at the intersection of structural biology, bacteriophage engineering, and immunology. She published her work in various scientific journals such as Cell and Nature Communications. Her research efforts recently led to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) MOSAIC K99 Pathway to Independence Award “Improving phage-based medicine with immunoengineering”. This prestigious NIH award is designed to prepare postdoctoral researchers for becoming competitive candidates for faculty positions at universities. The award provides several years of research funding for an awardee at a place of their future employment as a faculty. Dr. Freeman plans to conduct structural, functional, and immunological evaluations of bacteriophages and their proteins to establish an independent, interdisciplinary research group working to steer the immune response to bacteriophage therapy toward favorable clinical outcomes.

Dr. Freeman was introduced to original research on nanoparticles as an undergraduate physics major at CSU (supported mostly by the USRA program). She worked in the lab of Dr. Streletzky on helping to develop Static Light Scattering (SLS) and Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering (DDLS) capabilities at CSU and on synthesis and SLS/DDLS characterization of polymeric microgels. Her undergraduate research at CSU has resulted in multiple regional and national presentations and two peer-reviewed publications including one as a first author.