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Cristin MacDonald
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Education
B.S., Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lafayette College, 2005
Research Interests
I ventured into Biomedical Engineering through a very round about way.In my undergraduate studies at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. I studied Civil and Environmental Engineering, while taking my medicalschool pre-requisites. The logic was that a background in engineering would stick out to admissions representatives for medical schools. A visiting structural engineering professor from Carnegie Melon came to Lafayette and found out about my interest in attending medical school. We began studying how stresses and strains differed in press-fit versus cemented hip implants. As a part of this experience I was invited into the operating room with the physician we were working with. . . not too long after the surgery began, there went from one patient in the room, to two. I had fainted after watching the surgery. It was at this point in time that I realized I thoroughly enjoyed medicine and the problems associated with it, but that I was going to be of most service doing the engineering aspects. No one wants a doctor with a weak stomach.
I am now a Ph.D. student here at Drexel in Dr Barbee's lab working on engineering problems far different than those that I faced in
undergraduate. I am now working on magnetically targeted drug
delivery. While many researchers today have been able to successfully create magnetically responsive nanoparticles of different compositions, coatings and drug loadings, there is still a need for successful means of targeting these drugs to non-superficial areas of the body. My research involves manipulating magnetic nanoparticles through soft tissues utilizing both static and magnetic fields, as well as further researching the mechanism of uptake that these particles enter the cells.
Outside of the lab I enjoy coaching gymnastics and running marathons (slowly).