Kalina A. Hristova is a Bulgarian–American engineer. She is a professor of materials science and engineering at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Early life and education

Hristova received her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree and

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in physics from Sofia University in 1987 and 1988, respectively, before moving to the United States. She subsequently earned her PhD in mechanical engineering and materials science from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1994 and worked as a post-doctoral associate and research scientist at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. During college, she became fascinated by the organization of the biological membrane.

Career

Upon completing her PhD, Hristova joined the faculty of the Whiting School of Engineering where she focused her research in membrane biophysics and biomolecular materials. In 2007, Hristova received the Biophysical Society’s

Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award The Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society in Rockville, Maryland, is given to a woman who "holds very high promise or has achieved prominence while developing the early stages of a career in biophysical research".Biophysical So ...

for "her extraordinary and outstanding scientific achievements in biophysics research." As an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

of materials science and engineering, Hristova and her research team developed new tools and techniques that "allowed her to take pictures and make measurements that reveal how the rogue protein is behaving in the cell membrane." In 2014, Hristova served as one of the guest editors for a special issue of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. During the summer of 2016, Hristova and her research team developed a fluorescence-based technique that allowed membrane receptors to precisely measure receptor interactions in living cells. Later in October, she was elected a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

"for the development of quantitative methods to probe membrane protein interactions and to reveal the mechanism of activation of membrane receptors." During the

Western African Ebola virus epidemic The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and S ...

, Hristova co-authored ''Ebola Virus Delta Peptide Is a Viroporin'' to describe an effort to slow the virus's spread. She began the study after suspecting that the delta peptides could weaken the protective membranes that surround cells in a patient’s gastrointestinal tract. Following this, she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering "for the development of quantitative methods revealing the mechanism of activation of membrane receptors implicated in human cancers." In 2019, Hristova received a funding award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for her project "Seeking the Biophysical Principles that Govern RTK Activation."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hristova, Kalina Living people Duke University alumni Sofia University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Fellows of the American Physical Society Year of birth missing (living people)