Mara Jeffress, Ph.D.
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Mara Jeffress completed her Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle in 2004. Her diverse background has fostered professional interests in research and development, business development, and intellectual property and technology law. In 2005, she took a sabbatical to serve as a fellow of the National Academy of Science in Washington DC. That summer she also developed and managed a fundraiser for Doctor's Without Borders. Following her sabbatical, she was a visiting postdoctoral researcher at the California Pacific Medical Research Institute in San Francisco. Currently she is a Research Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Life Sciences Division.


Performing independent, primary research for over a decade, 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. 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.

As a graduate student, she took a course in patent law at the University of Washington. 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.

Her experience at the National Academies sparked an interest in patent law, however, her passion lies with using science and technology to better human health, so she returned to the lab bench to pursue postdoctoral training in oncology and cell signaling, learning advanced techniques in mammalian cell culture and RNA-interference.

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Mara was promoted and is now a Project Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.


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