Stanford

André Blumenstein

I began my research career as an undergraduate at Harvard University, where I received a bachelor's degree in neurobiology. While there I gained research experience working on the directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells to midbrain dopaminergic neurons in the lab of Ole Isacson. I expanded my experience during a summer internship at the Salk Institute, where I worked to develop an assay for identifying novel endogenous LINE-1 retrotransposition events in the mouse genome in the lab of Fred Gage. After graduating I worked as a research technician in Lee Rubin's lab at Harvard and was involved in multiple projects applying modern techniques of stem cell biology to the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative disease. This included the identification of compounds that improve the efficiency of the direct conversion of fibroblasts to motor neurons by virally mediated transcription factor over-expression, and the subsequent direct reprogramming of a host of human ALS patient fibroblasts into motor neurons to study both the pathology of the disease and as a platform for compound testing. In the future I hope to continue my research in understanding neurological disease through the tools of stem cell biology. Outside the lab I love to cook, music of all genres, and rock climbing.