Christopher Kakidas

Christopher Kakidas

E-mail: kakidas.c@husky.neu.edu
Department: Pharmaceutical Sciences
Advisor: Heather Clark

Biography

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Purdue University, School of Pharmacy
Bachelor of Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences (2006)

I initially began my college career at Purdue University with interest in clinical healthcare. This interest led me to pursue a Doctorate of Pharmacy. However, an opportunity to work in the lab of Dr. Lynne Taylor opened up my eyes to the prospect of conducting research. I immediately realized that I had found my calling. I promptly switched from the PharmD. program to pursue a more research focused B.S. in Pharmaceutical Science of which I graduated with in 2006.

After Purdue, I moved on to work in research and development as a formulation scientist at Merck (formerly Schering-Plough). I truly enjoyed the innovative atmosphere of R&D which is why I wanted to further my career by pursuing a PhD. Opportunities such as the IGERT program led me to Northeastern University.

IGERT has provided me with a unique atmosphere in which I am able to collaborate with scientists from very diverse backgrounds. Science is more and more becoming an interdisciplinary environment and IGERT is providing me with the proper training and education needed to function in this new realm.

Although I am working on a couple of projects, my main research focus is the development of a redox nanosensor. Being able to elucidate how a cell deals with and reacts to oxidative insults in real-time has been very elusive. My research proposes to solve this issue and help biologists better understand the role of oxidation and reduction in disease states such as cancer.

Projects

Publications