Principal Investigator

Rebecca Pinals

Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
Sarafan ChEM-H Institute Scholar
Knight Initiative Faculty Fellow
MAC3 Impact Philanthropies Faculty Fellow
Terman Faculty Fellow

rpinals@stanford.edu

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory with Li-Huei Tsai (2025) – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering with Markita Landry (2021) – University of California, Berkeley
BS Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (2016) – Brown University

Support Team

Alexis Rojas

Administrative Associate

arojas7@stanford.edu

Eulim Kang

Research Assistant

eulimk@stanford.edu

Postdoctoral Researchers

Djuna von Maydell

Postdoctoral Scholar

djunavm@stanford.edu

PhD in Neuroscience (Computationally Enabled Integrative Neuroscience) (2025) – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BS in Biomedical Science (2018) – King’s College London

Research: Djuna is developing quantitative models of lipid transport in the brain.

Graduate Students

Yunbeen Bae

PhD Student in Chemical Engineering
Stanford Graduate Fellow (SGF)
Chemistry/Biology Interface (CBI) Fellow
NSF GRFP Fellow

yunbeen@stanford.edu

BS in Chemical-Biological Engineering and Biology (2024) – Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research: Yunbeen is studying receptor-mediated transport across the blood-brain barrier using 3D engineered human cellular models.

Amanda Cai

PhD Student in Chemical Engineering
Chemistry/Biology Interface (CBI) Fellow
NSF GRFP Fellow

amandacai@stanford.edu

BSE in Chemical & Biological Engineering (2025) – Princeton University

Research: Amanda is building a microfluidic BBB-on-chip platform integrated with quantitative models of barrier transport.

Dylan Reil

PhD Candidate in Biochemistry
[Joint with the Khosla Lab]

dreil@stanford.edu

BS in Biochemistry (2022) – Virginia Tech

Research: Dylan is using chemical and molecular biology to understand brain lipoprotein particle biosynthesis and Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology.