2025-26 IEM Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship Recipient

IEM is pleased to congratulate Kate Dembny, a MD/PhD candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, on receiving a 2025-2026 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF) from the Graduate School. The Fellowship, which was sponsored by IEM, directly supports Ms. Dembny as she works on her research project "Working Memory Dysfunction in Parkinson's: An Engineering Approach to Neurology" with her advisor, IEM member Tay Netoff.

Ms. Dembny’s project combines the fields of neurology, electrophysiology, and medical devices to learn more about the mechanisms of working memory function in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). In particular, she is focusing on learning how Deep Brain Stimulation, an FDA-approved neuromodulatory therapy for PD, affects working memory. This understanding will lay the groundwork for the development of future neuromodulatory therapies that treat working memory symptoms of PD.

Two other IEM members are serving as co-advisors to Ms. Dembny. Dr. Alex Herman is a physician scientist and psychiatrist with critical experience in human behavior and cognitive neuroscience. Dr. David Darrow is a functional neurosurgeon with expertise in human electrophysiology and neuroanatomy.

After completing her degree, Dembny hopes to run a lab focused on understanding the physiological basis of neurological disorders and develop new neuromodulatory therapies for treating them.

Learn more about the Graduate School's IDF.