Mara Jeffress completed her Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle on August 20, 2004. Her diverse background has fostered a mix of professional interests, including primary research, medicine, project management and business development, science policy, bioethics, intellectual property and technology law, writing and publishing. In 2005, she was a fellow of the National Academy of Science in Washington DC. That summer she developed and managed a fundraiser for Doctor's Without Borders, before serving as a visiting postfoctoral researcher at the California Pacific Medical Research Institute in San Francisco. Currently she is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Life Sciences Division.

Performing independent, primary research since 1992, Mara has been involved with four major research projects. She enjoys the freedom and independence of being a bench-scientist and has greatly enjoyed her time as undergraduate researcher, Chiron research associate and graduate student researcher. Upon entering graduate school, her intention was to return to industry as a senior scientist.

Mara holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington, and two bachelors degrees from UCSC in Biology and Philosophy and an unofficial minor in Women's Studies. In her philosophy degree she specialized in philosophy of science and bioethics, and was asked by the UCSC Board of Biology to design and teach a course in bioethics. The class was such a success that she was invited by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine to teach a similar course.

While between undergraduate and graduate studies, Mara traveled extensively in SE and central Asia working as a scientist, teacher and medical observer. Her experience as a medical observer in a rural Nepali hospital fostered an interest in tropical diseases and global health. Mara's doctoral reserach focused on malaria, a disease she chose to study because it kills more people on the planet than any other infectious disease, mostly women and young children. For a technical explanation of this work, click here.

While in graduate school, she became the co-chair of a student-conceived, student-run career seminar series, Bioscience Careers, which hosts monthly speakers with Ph.D.s in biological sciences who are working in non-traditional (non-academic) careers. During her 2 years as committee co-chair, she made several contacts, was exposed to many career options and is now considering a career in business develpment or management consulting. In addition to research and project management, she has professional interests in the areas of business and international development, law, bioethics, science and health policy, global health and writing.

As a graduate student, she took a course in patent law at the University of Washington and has invited two Seattle patent attorneys and several policy experts to give career seminars as part of the Bioscience Careers series. After completing her Ph.D., Mara was awarded the Christine Mirzayan Science Policy Fellowship. During this 3 month fellowship at the National Academy of Science in Washington D.C., Mara examined economic issues surrounding the patenting of genes and proteins as part of a National Institute of Helath (NIH) commisioned study conducted jointly by the Board of Science Technology and Economic Policy (STEP) and The Program for Science Technology and Law (STL) at the National Academies.

As a teen and young adult, Mara was an avid writer of short stories and poetry. As an undergraduate, several of her poems were published. As a graduate student her writing shifted from philosophy papers and poetry to peer-reviewed research articles and reviews. She has also written an article on her experience as a fellow at the National Academies for In Focus magazine and is currently researching a book on today's young scientists in the United States and the challenges they face.