Katharine von Herrmann ’07
Current town: New York, NY
Hometown: Piedmont, CA
CVA Discipline: Alpine Skiing
CVA Discipline: Alpine Skiing
After Katharine von Herrmann ’07 graduated from CVA, she continued on to Smith College where she competed on the ski team with fellow Big Dogs Emma Coffin ’08 and Hope Wilson ’09. While at Smith, she studied biochemistry and attributes her early excitement about science to two of her favorite classes at CVA: Biology with Karen and Chemistry with Shelley, noting that their enthusiasm for science was contagious. While biochemistry can certainly be a challenging major, Katharine found that she was well prepared for her college science classes. Her time at CVA taught her to be a thoughtful, engaged and dedicated student-athlete. Looking to apply what she had learned about healthy muscle fiber development to a model of muscle disease, she joined the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation after graduating from the Smith Biology Masters Program in 2013.
Looking to apply what she had learned about healthy muscle fiber development to a model of muscle disease, she joined the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation after graduating from the Smith Biology Masters Program in 2013. The SMA Foundation is an organization devoted to accelerating treatments for SMA patients through research and drug development. As a Project Manager, she designs and facilitates preclinical research studies, including biomarker validation, protein assay development and specific proof-of-concept studies supporting the application of therapeutics for the treatment of SMA. Working at the SMA Foundation has shown her firsthand how successful collaborations between academic institutions, medical centers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and non-profit organizations can achieve significant progress in drug development for serious diseases with no existing treatments.
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Once she graduated, Katharine had the opportunity to study skeletal muscle development in a lab. Using a cell culture model, she identified changes in protein expression that correlated with shifts in cellular morphology, physiology and protein homeostasis during skeletal muscle development.
Looking to apply what she had learned about healthy muscle fiber development to a model of muscle disease, she joined the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation after graduating from the Smith Biology Masters Program in 2013. The SMA Foundation is an organization devoted to accelerating treatments for SMA patients through research and drug development. As a Project Manager, she designs and facilitates preclinical research studies, including biomarker validation, protein assay development and specific proof-of-concept studies supporting the application of therapeutics for the treatment of SMA. Working at the SMA Foundation has shown her firsthand how successful collaborations between academic institutions, medical centers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and non-profit organizations can achieve significant progress in drug development for serious diseases with no existing treatments.
Katharine currently lives in New York City and her favorite thing about it is running in Central Park.
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