Brief Biography: Erin grew up in the small town of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. Her interests in science and medicine led her to Villanova University where she studied neuroscience on a pre-veterinary track and worked as a veterinary technician at a small animal primary care practice for 3 years. During her time at Villanova, she joined her first research lab, where she studied the locomotive behavior of Tokay geckos. Interested in pursuing research further, and in combination with her growing passion for biomedical science, she moved to the United Kingdom after graduation to get her master’s degree in cell biology at the Royal Veterinary College. Here, her research focused on the cellular role of GPNMB, a genetic risk factor implicated in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. After 2 years in London, Erin moved back to the United States to take on a post-baccalaureate position at the NIH where she continued her work in Parkinson’s disease research, developing iPSC and midbrain organoid models for use by the wider Parkinson’s research community. Now within Cornell’s combined DVM-PhD program, Erin is thrilled to combine her passions for veterinary medicine and scientific research through pursuit of her interests in comparative medicine and translational research.

Education: M.Res. in Cell Biology, Royal Veterinary College, 2022; B.S. in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, Villanova University, 2021

Research Interests: Erin is interested in spontaneously occurring companion animal diseases and the ways we can utilize these naturally occurring disease models to advance our knowledge and treatment of them in both veterinary and human patients