Brianna Bibel

Biochemistry

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

If youโ€™re asked to figure out how something works, one of your first instincts is probably to look at it. You may want to take apart its various pieces, look at them individually, and put them back together again. This is the same basic premise behind my research figuring out how cellular machinery uses microRNA to tightly control gene expression to allow cells to grow and develop without becoming cancerous. Unlike the toys you may have taken apart as a child, however, the molecules I study are much too small to be seen with the naked eye (or even a traditional microscope), so I need to use a variety of scientific techniques and equipment to help me โ€œseeโ€ and manipulate them.

Scientific curiosity is a strong driver for me, but it isnโ€™t the only thing I love about my work; science and humanities are often depicted as contradictory, but my studies inside the lab have changed my view of the world outside.

In a world often tainted by chaos and ugliness, I appreciate that structural biology allows me to uncover the ordered beauty hiding within all living things. I hope to share this beauty with others, and am therefore pursuing a PhD at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, where I also serve as Social Media Chair for CSHLโ€™s Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) group.

5 articles

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There may soon be an FDA-approved treatment for the intractable condition

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Could a virus with a sweet tooth become a weapon against cancer?

Researchers harnessed a virus' natural behavior to attack tumors

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Coal ash contains lead, arsenic, and mercury โ€“ย and it's mostly unregulated

Can science find solutions where policy lags before the damage deepens?

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What happens when we make the world in our own image?

Watch the fourth episode of our animated Frankenstein series, Reanimation!

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What ancient salt can tell us about life on Earth

Scientists are finding more evidence about how our planet gained oxygen

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