Charting a Career in Science—Starting with a Chemistry Class at Emmanuel

Aimee Sanford ’16 wasn’t planning to apply to Emmanuel College. “I got a flyer in the mail,” she said. “And we visited on a whim.” But after attending a chemistry session during admitted students’ day, something clicked. “I remember thinking, ‘I'm excited to learn more. I want to take that class right now,’” she said.

Sanford, who grew up just outside of Boston, enrolled at Emmanuel with plans to attend medical school. But her path shifted early on, after a teaching assistant in her accelerated chemistry course noticed her knack for problem-solving. “They said, ‘You’re pretty good at this—have you considered majoring in chemistry?’” Sanford recalled. “It was the first time someone suggested I might belong in science—not just as a student, but as a scientist.” She went on to major in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry.

At Emmanuel, Sanford found her stride in small classes where she built close relationships with faculty and peers. “I was shy and introverted in high school classrooms,” she said. “But in that setting, I felt comfortable speaking up, asking questions, and eventually leading.”

Research That Stuck

Sanford worked closely with Dr. Aren Gerdon, Professor of Chemistry, on research exploring the mineralization of hydroxyapatite, a key component of bone and teeth. She learned to build and use microfluidic flow cells—small devices that control the movement of fluids at the microscopic level.

She also brought a bit of humor and creativity to the lab. “I might still be known for creating the fish design,” she said. The name came from the whimsical shape she engineered into a microfluidic flow cell to help study the effects of laminar versus turbulent flow—part of her senior research on mineralization.

"The fish design lives on in our lab and so does Aimee’s contribution to our understanding of calcium phosphate reactions. She built something of her own design that we continue to use and she has soared from that step to an exciting scientific career," said Dr. Gerdon.

Another standout memory: presenting that research at the College’s Distinction in the Field event, with her family in the audience. “I was terrified of public speaking,” she said. “But I felt powerful that day.”

The hands-on experience she gained—designing experiments, analyzing results, presenting findings— gave Sanford room to think like a scientist early on. “In the labs at Emmanuel, I wasn’t just an extra set of hands,” Sanford said. “I got to come up with the questions and figure out how to answer them.”

From Campus to the CDC

After graduation, Sanford moved to Atlanta on an ORISE Fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she joined the Emergency Response Branch. There, she worked on projects related to chemical warfare agents and environmental toxins. Sanford's main project was developing two methods that could be used to help diagnose acute toxic encephalopathy that came from toxin exposure in litchi fruit. During her time there, a larger CDC investigation was responding to unexplained child illness that was a result of this, where children experience a rapid and deadly drop in blood sugar after eating the fruit, which contained two toxins. Sanford helped refine the methods to detect those toxins in both the seeds and in blood samples.

Later, she trained to detect substances like abrin and ricin in human urine and nerve agents in human blood products. “They had to be ready to respond to 5,000 cases at any time,” she said. “You name it—we had to be able to detect it.”

It was her supervisor at the CDC—a former lab mate of Dr. Gerdon—who encouraged Sanford to apply to Ph.D. programs. “She said, ‘If you want one of these offices, you need to go get your Ph.D.,’” Sanford said.

A New Chapter at Emory—and Beyond

Sanford applied and was accepted to several programs, including Georgia Tech and Emory. While Georgia Tech was a better match for her technical background, Emory felt like the right place to grow. “I had real conversations with the faculty. It didn’t feel transactional,” she said.

Sanford joined the lab of Dr. Jen Heemstra, working on aptamer and enzyme encapsulation technologies that could one day be used to degrade nerve agents. The original project took a few detours—“academic research often does,” she noted—but yielded promising new applications. “We didn’t end up exactly where we thought we would, but we found other things along the way.”

Today, Sanford manages a small R&D team at Nautilus Biotechnology in the Bay Area. She and her colleagues are developing tools to quantify all the proteins in the human body at any given time—what some call the next frontier after the Human Genome Project. “DNA holds the instructions, and RNA makes the copies—but it’s the proteins that actually get the job done,” she said. “They’re the ones carrying out the work inside your body."

Sanford now spends more time leading and mentoring scientists than running her own experiments. “I’m finding that I get more fulfillment helping others succeed,” she said. “Not just through science, but by helping them figure out what fills their cup.”

Advice for the Next Generation

Sanford encourages current Emmanuel students to look for opportunities that excite them—even if they’re intimidating. “Your career isn’t something you plan in one day,” she said. “It’s built by one decision after another.”

One of those decisions might be to take on a tough challenge—like she did in her first physical chemistry class. She was the only junior in a course filled with seniors, taught by Dr. Faina Ryvkin, then Associate Dean of Natural Sciences and a professor with a reputation for rigor. “She looked at me on the first day and said, ‘This is a hard class. Only seniors should be in it,’” Sanford recalled. “I just remember thinking, I’ve got to prove her wrong.” She did—and became the tutor for the course the following year.

Asked what’s next, Sanford says she’s happy where she is, helping guide others and solving hard problems. “If you’d asked me ten years ago where I’d be today, I would’ve been totally wrong,” she said. “So I just try to focus on what feels right—and keep going.”