Cecelia Brown

PhD Candidate, Graduate Student

Biology Department

Stanford University 

I was born and raised in the Bay Area here in Northern California. I went to San Jose State University for my undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology. I primarily worked in Dr. Cleber Ouverney's Microbiology Lab looking at characterizing uncultivable bacteria and accessing their potential roles in the human and environmental microbiome.

From there I went to the San Francisco State Cell and Molecular Biology Masters program, where I worked in Dr. Blake Riggs' Developmental Biology. My focus there was understanding how cell fate is determined and what contribution organelles play in that process. Also, while in the program, I received a minor in Computer Science through the PINC program. My final project or that program was building a program to track delaminating cells within tissues.

Currently I am a 2nd year graduate student in the Biosciences PhD program in the Biology department at Stanford University. I am a member of the Skotheim Lab, and our primary interest is studying the cell cycle and cell size. My main project is developing a cancer therapeutic targeting a key protein-protein interaction that is central to the cell cycle.

In addition, I am interested in the biochemical properties that govern how proteins recognize and interact with one another to facilitate complex cellular processes such as the cell cycle. In my spare time, I love to run and be outdoors, garden, cook, and spend time with my husband.