Biography:

Dr. Leila Strickland joined the IMGC Scientific Advisory Committee in 2022 and has participated in the IMGC Symposia since 2020. Dr. Strickland holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder in Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology in 2001. She earned her PhD from Boston College in 2006, where she studied the spatial and temporal coordination of cell behaviors, such as cell division, motility, and secretion using a classical developmental biology model system, the sea urchin embryo. Dr. Strickland’s graduate studies afforded her the opportunity to spend summers working at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where she enjoyed a dynamic and interdisciplinary intellectual community that profoundly shaped her as a scientist. In her dissertation research, Leila utilized advanced imaging technologies, cellular micromanipulation and microinjection, and subcellular fractionation for biochemical analysis to investigate how cells establish the plane of division at the appropriate time and location. After completing her graduate studies, Dr. Strickland spent almost 4 years as a postdoctoral fellow supported by the Walter V and Idun Berry Foundation at Stanford University, where she learned mammalian cell culture techniques for adherent and suspension growth and investigated the role of non-coding RNA in the condensation of mitotic chromosomes, with a specific focus on understanding the targeting of methyltransferases to centromeric and pericentromeric regions to ensure the accurate division of the genome. Motivated by her own challenges with breastfeeding her two children and informed by her training in spatially regulated cellular processes, Leila co-founded BIOMILQ in 2019 with the aim of developing a 3-dimensional cell culture process to produce milk from mammary cells. Leila’s aspiration for BIOMILQ is to expand access to as many of the benefits of breastmilk as possible when exclusive breastfeeding is not available.

Email: leila.strickland@biomilq.com