Erin Purcell

Portrait photo of Erin PurcellContact

epurcell@msu.edu
517-353-1980
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IQ DIVISION – Neuroengineering

Departmental AFFILIATIONS

About

Erin Purcell is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering where she leads the Regenerative Electrode Interface Lab.

Her research is focused on improving the integration of electrodes implanted in the brain with the cells they interface. These devices are used in research settings to understand brain function and in the clinic to treat neurological disorders.

Dr. Purcell’s current lab projects employ novel optical approaches to pattern neural circuits from non-neuronal cells, develop new approaches to understand device-tissue integration and create techniques to genetically modify cells at the electrode interface.

Her research training spans the use of extracellular and intracellular electrophysiology, regenerative scaffolding, quantitative immunohistochemistry, and neuronal differentiation through the delivery of proneural transcription factors.

Dr. Purcell received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan where she studied neural engineering under the direction of Daryl Kipke.  She subsequently trained as a post-doctoral fellow with Keith Duncan in the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan.