Stacy D. Sherrod, Executive Director

Stacy D. Sherrod, Ph.D.

Prof. Sherrod’s expertise lies in the development, evaluation, and application of advanced approaches for global untargeted analysis of diverse samples matrices to answer fundamental questions in human health and medicine.

Specifically, she focuses on applying mass spectrometry-based analytical methods to biological research and has a passion for working with others to try to solve problems that scientists in other fields bring to me. Her expertise is implementing mass spectrometry methods to better understand basic mechanisms and human health.  As a member of the metabolomics Quality Assurance and quality Control Consortium (mQACC), she is keenly interested in pushing forward metabolomics and lipidomic QA/QC practices in an effort to push forward the data generated in global, untargeted metabolomics analyses into actionable information.

Prof. Sherrod has collaborated on numerous biological projects using cutting-edge microfluidic technology and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, including novel bioinformatics data analysis approaches and visualization strategies. These projects include topics such as examination of distinct exo-metabolomic state spaces of human promyelocytic leukemia cells differentiated in vitro into neutrophils, implementation of integrated systems for monitoring real-time cellular response using a microfluidic device(s) followed by molecular characterization, investigation of numerous organ-on-chip studies to identify changes in exposure and/or treatment, rapid chemical threat assessment using metabolomics IM-MS strategies, and the design and implementation of an IM-MS-based study of maternal immune activation, wherein maternal inflammatory cytokines lead to abnormalities in fetal brain development.

Past and current collaborative research initiatives have been funded by a variety of federal agencies (e.g., DARPA, DTRA, EPA, IARPA, NIH, NSF). As a result, Prof. Sherrod is glad to support research collaborators at VU and other institutions in strategic program planning and implementation of metabolomics based mass spectrometry methods.