Elizabeth Vargis Ph.D. Candidate 5824 Stevenson Center Nashville, TN 37235 e.vargis@vanderbilt.edu
Education: B.S. in Bioengineering, UC Berkeley, 2004 Research: Cervical Precancer Detection with Raman Spectroscopy: Starting from where Elizabeth Kanter left off, we are collecting and analyzing Raman spectroscopy from normal and diseased cervixes of non-white patients to ensure our previously developed algorithms are applicable and accurate for all populations. Drs. Khabele and Byrd at Meharry Medical College are working with us on this project. Preterm Labor Detection with Raman Spectroscopy: Currently, a method of accurately predicting preterm labor does not exist. Correctly identifying preterm labor and implementing prevention treatments could increase the time the baby has to develop in the womb. The goal of this project is to detect changes of the cervix with Raman spectroscopy due to pregnancy. We are working with Drs. Al-Hendy and Whitty at Meharry Medical College. Brain Tumor Demarcation with Fluorescence and Diffuse Reflectance: Brain tumor removal is significantly hindered by limitations in the intra-operative localization of tumor margins. The surgeon tends to remove as little tissue as possible to retain brain functionality, leading to incomplete tumor resection and recurrence. The goal of this project is to further develop our system to intra-operatively determine tumor edges to guide tumor resection. We are working on this project with Drs. Thompson and Weaver from Vanderbilt’s Department of Neurological Surgery. Personal Bio: In 2004, Elizabeth graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in Bioengineering. Before deciding to apply to graduate school, she turned her undergraduate research into a full-time job with Dr. G. Shyamala at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. During her time there, she realized that graduate school was for her and decided to join Vanderbilt’s PhD program in Biomedical Engineering in August 2005. She completed her masters with Dr. Rick Haselton in August 2007 where she developed a novel method of utilizing small pieces of DNA to detect viral proteins. Her thesis was titled Virus Detection with DNA Logic Tags. Shortly thereafter, she joined Dr. Anita Mahadevan-Jansen’s lab to complete her PhD research. Elizabeth grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, CA before moving to Berkeley, CA for 5 years. She now lives 1 block from Vanderbilt’s campus with her extremely special/sweet/rambunctious/Corgi/Labrador/mutt Olivia. She participates in most BME intramural sports and is a member of the Vanderbilt Community Chorus. Publications: Vargis EA, Perez JW, Wright DW, Haselton FR.  Virus Detection with DNA Logic Tags.  Angewandte Chemie.  (In Preparation), 2008. Shyamala G., Chou Y-C, Cardiff RD, Vargis E.  Effect of c-neu/ErbB2 Expression Levels on Estrogen Receptor alpha-Dependent Proliferation in Mammary Epithelial Cells: Implication for Breast Cancer Biology.  Cancer Research, 66: (21), 10391-10398, 2006.
Copyright © 2008 Vanderbilt University Biomedical Optics Laboratory