Kirsten Parratt, PhD is a Biomedical Engineer in the Biomaterials Group. She works to improve the quantitation and characterization of microbial populations to support biomanufacturing industries such as Live Biotherapeutic Products (live microbial therapeutics) and Rapid Microbial Testing Methods for advanced therapy products. For example, currently she is developing multiplexed flow cytometry assays to measure the activity, viability, and health of microbial cell populations. Previously she was a NIST-NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate mentored by Nancy J. Lin. The goal of her NRC work was to develop quantitative measurements of adherent microbial communities and biofilm-material interactions. Her graduate dissertation research focused on using flow cytometry as a high-throughput and high replicate platform to assay microfabricated biomaterials for stem cell differentiation studies and detection applications.
Research interests: