Brittney-shea Herbert PhD

Dr. Brittney-Shea Herbert, Ph.D., is the new Assistant Dean for physician-scientist development at IU School of Medicine. Dr. Herbert obtained her B. A. and Ph.D. degrees in Biological Sciences, with a focus on nutrition and cancer, from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Herbert then performed postdoctoral research on telomeres and telomerase under the tutelage of Drs. Jerry Shay and Woodring Wright at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Department of Cell Biology. Since arriving at IU, Dr. Herbert has focused her independent research on the biology of aging and cancer, including experimental therapeutics research on telomerase inhibitors and natural products. Among Dr. Herbert’s research honors is a NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowship, a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Postdoctoral Fellowship, a DOD Breast Cancer Research Program Postdoctoral Fellowship, and numerous grants awarded for research in aging and cancer. Dr. Herbert has also been the recipient of the IU Trustees Teaching Award for multiple years.

Dr. Herbert oversees the efforts to engage medical students to pursue research and scholarship in medical school and beyond. She is a co-Director of the Indiana Medical Scientist/Engineer Training Program (MSTP), an MD/Ph.D. program at IU School of Medicine in collaboration with Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Herbert also leads the Indiana Medical student Program in Research and Scholarship (IMPRS) which offers a summer research program for rising second-year medical students. As part of this program, she is a co-director of the NHLBI-T35 short-term research training grant for medical students.