Katie Antilla is a PhD scholar in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. She is broadly interested in biomolecular engineering research aimed at medical and healthcare applications, focusing on developing assays for cancer diagnostics and point-of-care testing. She is currently working on three research projects: (1) developing a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) biosensor assay for detecting mutations in circulating tumor DNA from non-small cell lung cancer patients, (2) prototyping a GMR-based on-chip real-time PCR system for point-of-care testing, and (3) discovering methylated cancer biomarkers using a new layered bioinformatics method and validating those biomarkers using targeted bisulfite sequencing.
Prior to her current work, Katie did research in a few other labs, including projects on fluorescence imaging of mammalian cells, RNA analysis in bacteria, and enzyme expression in tobacco plants; she also served as a Teaching Assistant for several Chemical Engineering courses. Katie joined the Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society in 2015 and was awarded Stanford’s NIH T32 Biotechnology Training Grant in 2019.
Outside of research, Katie likes to participate in volunteer outreach activities, especially teaching science to younger kids, as well as playing tennis, hiking, skiing, and doing crafts.
