Dr. Ma received her PhD from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) studying tumor cell apoptosis and identified a novel E3 ligase. During her postdoctoral training, she served as Associate Research Scientist in New York University Langone Medical Center, and Research Associate in The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, with her research predominantly focusing on the field of cancer biology and protein post-translational modification. In 2014, she was recruited as an Investigator in Dr. Eric M. Morrow’s laboratory at Brown University. She studied rare childhood neurogenetic disorders that lead to defects in neurodevelopment, as well as to neurodegeneration with a specific focus on Christianson syndrome. Her research involved employing various techniques, including cell cultures, induced pluripotent stem cell models, differentiation of stem cells into two-dimensional neuronal cultures and three-dimensional organoids, as well as animal models. Besides a key leader in Morrow laboratory using induced pluripotent stem cell technology to study different rare childhood neurogenetic disorders, Dr. Ma is also playing a role as a central person leading human stem cell efforts in the Brown University Center for Translational Neuroscience in the Carney Institute of Brain Science. In 2023, she was appointed as Assistant Professor (Research) in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry (MCB) at Brown University.
