Dr. Barefield provides scientific support for all technology development activities related to patent prosecution, commercial sponsored research agreements and alliance management and assists in licensing activities for the Institute’s technologies. Before joining La Jolla Institute, Dr. Barefield trained in diverse fields of biomedical research and therapeutic development, and her expertise extends to genetics and molecular biology in the fields of allergy, neurological disease, metabolic disease, and oncology. Her experience in industry encompasses high-throughput assay development and screening, and pre-clinical drug development.
After receiving her B.A. in Biology from Grinnell College, she spent two years in a pediatric epidemiology research laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Barefield obtained her Ph.D. from University of California San Diego and performed her doctoral research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where she studied chromosome end maintenance in the context of cancer and premature aging disorders. She then performed post-doctoral studies at the California Institute for Biomedical Research, a non-profit organization focused on translational research.
