Liana Tellez is a Research Associate in the Sabeti Lab where she works on engineering adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to improve delivery efficacy for gene therapy tools. She graduated from Northwestern University in March of 2019 with a B.A. in Biological Sciences and a concentration in Genetics & Genomics. During her time in undergrad, she spent over two years in the Evangelos Kiskinis Lab researching neurodegeneration pathways in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) caused by the C9orf72 (C9) and NEK1 mutations. Using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived motor neurons, she helped discover that the C9 mutation causes an imbalance in the nucleocytoplasmic proteome, leading to the mislocalization of a key protein, eRF1, and contributing to ALS pathophysiology. Outside of lab, Liana spends her time at the gym, tutoring, and listening to podcasts.