Small business, Brain,Biomarker discovery, Technology development ,Bioimaging, Research leadership.
Dr. Sara Sameni joined as a Health Program Specialist within the NINDS Small Business Program. Sara joins us from San Diego, where she completed her postdoctoral studies in Terry Sejnowski's lab at the Salk Institute focused on developing new computational models to understand the key mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity as well as investigating the impact of cellular atrophy in the cell signaling pathway in neurological disorders and aging. Sara completed her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at UC Irvine, where she focused on advanced optical imaging and discovering multiple biomarkers at the cellular and molecular level for Huntington disease and other neurological disorders.
Beside scientific discoveries, Sara has empowered women and minorities through multiple leadership positions, including initiating new series at UCI to help connect faculty and graduate students better and promote workplace diversity. Sara also has experience in the medical device industry through an internship with OrthAlign and has previously led multiple teams through a UCI Shark Tank-style business competition.