Samantha Cuthbert Email & Phone Number

United States

• Participate in various aspects of molecular test design and development
• Partake in designing, performing, and summarizing development studies
• Responsible for creating verification protocols and carrying out the experiments
• Troubleshoot independently and within a team to resolve unforeseen problems
• Prepare presentations and present data in cross-site meetings
• Ensure compliance with the FDA by following regulatory requirements and proper documentation

• Evaluated feasibility of sample-to-answer molecular diagnostic assays on a novel platform
• Frequent use of BSL2 labs for culturing microorganisms. Skilled in culturing a variety of bacterial species by standard plating methods and automated technologies
• Designed experiments to optimize assay performance
• Contributed to designing, conducting, and analyzing feasibility studies

Chicago, Illinois

• Assist 3 Post-Doctorates, 1 PhD, and the Principal Investigator with research projects. Participate in many aspects of the projects, from initial requirements gathering and planning through experimentation and reporting.
• Perform daily laboratory duties that include maintaining mouse colonies, genotyping by PCR, RNA & DNA extractions, plasmid preps, flow cytometry, analyzing data, and documenting results.

• Instructed over 200 college students on basic microbiology laboratory skills and safety.
• Prepared all materials necessary for student experiments.
• Scheduled and facilitated meetings with teaching assistants to train on successful completion of laboratory experiments.
• Trained and mentored the new teaching assistants on best practices for efficient and effective lab preparation.

Research Project | Western Illinois University 01/2015 – 08/2015Participated on a research project studying the manner in which the measles virus interacts with the human innate immune system to better understand the mechanistic process that facilitates the viral infection of host cells. Thesis Project | Western Illinois University 02/2015 –.

Master'S Degree, Microbiology, General, 4.0

Activities and Societies: Research Inspiring Student Excellence (RISE) at Western Illinois University (WIU), Graduate student ambassador.

Bachelor'S Degree, Biology, General, 3.5

Activities and Societies: Historian of Tri-Beta (Biology Honor's Society), Undergraduate research