Dr. Scherer is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. She is also Director of the Hope Clinic Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) Research Laboratory and a full member of both the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis graduate programs in the Laney Graduate School. Dr. Scherer joined Emory on March 1, 2020.
Dr. Scherer received a bachelor of science degree summa cum laude in Chemistry from the University of Arkansas. Dr. Scherer pursued graduate studies at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where she was selected into a joint PhD/DPhil program with the University of Oxford in the UK. After focusing largely on mechanisms of HIV inhibition by broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies for her graduate work, Dr. Scherer transitioned to cellular immunology research in HIV and HPV vaccinology for her postdoctoral studies in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington and in the Human Biology Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. Following her postdocs, Dr. Scherer transitioned to lead an antibody discovery team in biotech for approximately two years at Seagen, the then largest oncology therapeutics biotech in the Seattle area. Realizing her passion for infectious disease vaccine research, Dr. Scherer returned to the field as a fellow in the Respiratory Disease Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for two years before joining Emory as faculty.
The Summer 2025 round of Tech Ready Grants from the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) is officially underway! These $25,000 grants help Georgia Tech faculty and permanent research staff advance their technology’s readiness and commercialize their research, transitioning projects from the lab to make a positive impact. Don’t miss this opportunity to accelerate development of your innovations! The application deadline is May 30, 2025.
Why You Should Apply:
The 2025 International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR) will be held on the campus of Georgia Tech from May 14-16, 2025. The symposium will begin with the workshop(s)/tutorial(s) held on May 14 and the subsequent single-track symposium presentations will be at the Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech from May 15-16. This symposium will feature invited talk(s) and workshops in addition to single-track oral/poster presentations of original research.
As in the past, we also have the biennial school on medical robotics. In 2025, the Spring School on Medical Robotics (SSMR) will be from May 17-18, 2025, on the campus of Georgia Tech and will feature several invited speakers. 2025 ISMR and SSMR have been planned to be back-to-back with 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), which will be held in Atlanta, GA, USA from May 19-23, 2025.
The goal of ISMR is to bring together world-class researchers to present state-of-the-art research achievements and advances in surgical robotics, image-guided interventions, rehabilitation and assistive robotics, and prosthetics, as well as discuss challenges from the clinical point of view and address industry needs. It is envisioned that medical robots will integrate emerging technologies including soft robotics, smart materials, ergonomics, co-robotics, and artificial intelligence in the near future, and these topics will be featured in the symposium.
Potential topics for the symposium submissions include, but are not limited to, state-of-the-art research achievements and advances in surgical robotics, rehabilitation and assistive robotics, prosthetics, image-guided interventions, haptics, safety of robot-assisted procedures, training of medical personnel, and discussing potential challenges from the clinical point of view.
Sometimes the best ideas come from working somewhere no one else is. That certainly was the case for the team judged the best overall project at the Spring 2025 Capstone Design Expo April 22.
Their quick-to-adjust surgical retractor is designed to more easily pull back skin and tissue during head and neck surgeries to allow doctors to access deeper muscles, organs, and other tissues. Current devices require surgical assistants to hold them for hours or the use of cumbersome stands, and they require significant effort to adjust.
Michelle LaPlaca, PhD, and W. Hong Yeo, PhD, have been selected as recipients of Peterson Professorships with the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center (PTC) at Georgia Tech. The professorships, supported by the G.P. “Bud” Peterson and Valerie H. Peterson Faculty Endowment Fund, are meant to further energize the Georgia Tech and Children’s partnership by engaging and empowering researchers involved in pediatrics.
Stem cell therapies are improving recovery and survival rates for pediatric cancer patients. But the treatments can be risky. They can weaken the immune system, making children highly vulnerable to infections. And there are other potential long-term complications, including damage to tissues and organs.
A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has addressed this challenge, creating a new way to predict how these cutting-edge treatments might work in a particular patient. And it could revolutionize treatments for kids with complex immune system challenges.
Got an offbeat idea that traditional sponsors have told you is too risky, or too far afield from the current research approach? Great news! Your idea may be exactly what the W. M. Keck Foundation is looking to fund.
Keck seeks bold risky ideas that differ substantially from prevailing methods to generate far-reaching benefits for humanity in two categories: (i) medical research and (ii) science and engineering.
Awards are generally in the $1- $1.5 million range. The period of performance should be 3 years.
As a NASA Pathways intern, Gates Scholar, and G. Wayne Clough Tech Promise Scholar, J’Avani Stinson has devoted himself to the tenets of progress and service through his research, academics, and extracurriculars. Fueled by a lifelong love of science and devotion to helping others, Stinson, a second-year biology major from Stone Mountain, Georgia, hopes to use the generosities afforded to him to continue improving society.
Seven members of the Emory faculty have been named by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as 2024 Fellows. The AAAS selects fellows for their outstanding efforts in the advancement of science based on research, teaching, administration and technology, as well as communicating and interpreting science to the public. Emory’s new fellows join a distinguished list of previous fellows including Thomas Edison, W. E. B. DuBois, retired astronaut Ellen Ochoa and former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.
