Michelle Poirier

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry/Division of Neurobiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. I am also Director of the Laboratory of Structural Neurobiology. My group is focused on the biochemistry and cell biology of protein aggregation in Huntington's Disease (HD). We are currently trying to isolate and characterize the toxic species in HD, believed to be an oligomeric form of the huntingtin protein.

On UMass Dartmouth Chemistry...

I liked being able to study biochemistry within a chemistry department while at UMassD. I believe that the rigorous curriculum helped better prepare me for graduate school.

On the preparation that UMassD Chem provided...

The opportunity to do independent research as an undergraduate, and to publish in peer-reviewed journals, was a major factor in preparting me for graduate school, as well as helping me gain admissions to a top PhD program (I attended UC Berkeley and graduated with a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology in 1998). My PhD work, then, directly prepared me for my current position at Johns Hopkins.