Biology
Director of the CSUSB Bridges to Stem Cell Research program
Professor Nicole Bournias-Vardiabasis, a trained developmental geneticist, is investigating the interactions between aging and Alzheimer’s Disease
Nicole Bournias-Vardiabasis, by education and training, is a developmental geneticist. She is interested in identifying how early development is governed by the interplay of genes and the environment. Her organism of choice has always been Drosophila melanogaster. She is employing a Drosophila model of Alzheimer’s Disease to investigate the interactions between aging and Alzheimer’s and how dietary interventions might ameliorate the disease phenotype.
Bournias-Vardiabasis is the director of the CSUSB Bridges to Stem Cell Research program, which is funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The program places 10 undergraduate students and two graduate students per year in six-month and twelve-month respectively internships with host laboratories throughout the region: City of Hope Medical Center, UCR, Loma Linda University, Western Health Sciences University and USC/Children's Hospital.
Bournias-Vardiabasis was awarded a Ph.D. in developmental genetics from the University of Essex. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from UC Irvine.