Dr. Natalia de Val

 Thermo Fisher Scientific

Friday, March 1, 2024
12:00 Noon
Room 120 – Meyerhoff Chemistry Building
Host: CGSA

“Exploring Career Options: From Academia to Government and Industry”

“Dr. Natalia de Val will present during her talk her career path and how she moved from being an academic doing several postdocs in different countries to becoming a Senior Scientist and Business Developer at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Dr. de Val is a Biochemist/Protein engineering specialist, with more than 17 years of experience in single-particle Cryo-Electron Microscopy, Cryo-tomography as well as immunogenic design efforts for vaccine achievement.

She completed her Masters in Biochemistry from the University of Zaragoza, Spain and she received her Doctoral degree in Biochemistry from the University of Leuven, Belgium. After her graduation, she did postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley (CA, USA) and the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France).

From 2012-2016, she played a key role in ground-breaking studies at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (CA, USA) defining the structure of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein complex bound to neutralizing antibodies. This work used cryo-EM to provide important insights into HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein. During this time, she also contributed to the structural analysis of the Ebola virus glycoprotein.

Before relocating from California to Maryland, she served as Principal Scientist at Nanoimaging Services Inc., working with Dr. Bridget Carragher. In this biotech company, she led cryo-EM studies for numerous clients, including pharmaceutical companies.

In October 2017 she joined NCI as the Director of the Electron Microscopy Laboratory (EML) and the Team Lead for the Cryo-Electron Microscopy section at the Center for Molecular Microscopy (CMM). She was responsible for the management of a wide portfolio of projects related mainly to cancer and infectious diseases. Her goal was to provide structural biology information that helped develop vaccines and cures for these diseases.

She has authored over 76 scientific publications in high-impact scientific journals, such as Science, and Nature.

She joined Thermo Fisher Scientific in January 2021 as a Senior Scientist and Senior Business Developer for Electron Microscopy”