Elizabeth Etafo

Research and professional experience

From question to evidence.

Doctoral research at UNMC, plus earlier roles in pharmacy practice, pharmaceutical sales, and regulatory affairs.

Experience

  1. 2023 – present

    Ph.D. Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant

    University of Nebraska Medical Center

    CNS and spinal cord efficacy of antiretroviral therapy

    Designed and conducted preclinical studies in a humanized microglial mouse model. Combined ddPCR, multicolor flow cytometry, IHC, IF, multispectral microscopy, quantitative image analysis, and LC-MS/MS pharmacokinetic data to connect molecular, cellular, pathologic, and drug-exposure outcomes. Mentored undergraduate students.

    Polymeric nanoparticle drug delivery

    Designed, formulated, and optimized polymeric nanoparticle systems using solvent diffusion and self-assembly. Characterized size, dispersity, surface charge, and composition with DLS, zeta potential, and NMR, with dialysis-based purification and encapsulation-efficiency assessment.

    Viral infectivity profiling of HIV strains

    Generated infectious HIV strain stocks through bacterial transformation, plasmid DNA purification, and mammalian-cell transfection. Used TZM-bl luciferase reporter assays to quantify strain-specific infectivity and evaluate assay performance.

    Interactive RNA-seq analysis application

    Built an R Shiny application that takes gene-count matrices and sample metadata and runs DESeq2 normalization, differential expression, and gene annotation, with input validation, configurable comparisons, downloadable results, and volcano plots, heatmaps, and ranked-gene plots.

  2. Before the Ph.D.

    Earlier roles

    • Pharmaceutical Representative
    • Pharmacist
    • Pharmacist Intern, Regulatory Affairs

Skills

Molecular and cell biology
Mammalian cell cultureTransfectionLuciferase reporter assaysDNA and RNA isolationddPCRMulticolor flow cytometry (FlowJo)IHCIFMultispectral imagingViral infectivity assays
In vivo research
Humanized mouse modelsCNS researchDosing (SQ, IV, IP, oral gavage)Blood and tissue collection
Drug formulation and bioanalytics
Polymeric and lipid nanoparticle designDrug loadingLyophilizationSpray dryingDLSZeta potentialNMRLC-MS/MS sample processingTLCColumn chromatography
Genomics and computation
Bulk and single-cell RNA-seqRPythonLinuxSeuratScanpyR ShinyDifferential expressionGene-set enrichment
Analysis and communication
GraphPad PrismQuantitative image analysisBioRenderExperimental designManuscript preparationScientific presentationMentoring