Snapshot: Cullen Schmid

Position: Research Associate, laboratory of Associate Professor Laura Bohn, Departments of Molecular Therapeutics and Neuroscience.

Area of Research: Schmid and her colleagues in the Bohn lab are working with Associate Scientific Director Tom Bannister’s group to identify compounds that promote the pain-relieving effects of opiates while avoiding their negative side effects.

Background: Born and raised in a Wooster, a small town in northeast Ohio, Schmid earned a BS in biochemistry at Messiah College in Grantham, a small liberal arts college in central Pennsylvania. An undergraduate internship at Pennsylvania State Medical School studying retroviral trafficking in cells changed her career path from medicine to scientific research. She completed her PhD in neuroscience at Ohio State University as an external student working in the Bohn lab at Scripps Florida.

Awards: Schmid was awarded a University Fellowship from Ohio State during her graduate studies and twice earned the best poster award at the Scripps Florida Research Fest. In 2013, she gave the Young Investigator Presentation at the Experimental Biology annual meeting as part of the GPCR colloquium session chaired by Nobel Laureate Robert Lefkowitz.

Arrived at Scripps Research: March 2009.

Impressions of Scripps Research: “I really like the collaborative approach that Scripps has towards science. It has been a fun challenge to work closely with a team of chemists to develop compounds that have therapeutic potential.”

Professional and Volunteer Activities: Schmid participates in the Scripps Florida Society of Research Fellows and has volunteered with TSRI’s and Max Planck Institute’s scientific outreach programs.

Other Extracurricular Activities: An avid runner, Schmid is challenging herself by training for competitive events, including an upcoming half-marathon. She also enjoys cooking and baking.

Send comments to: press[at]scripps.edu