Scientific Director, Preclinical Modeling
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Aurora Burds Connor received her bachelor's degree in biology and French from Grinnell College, and her doctorate from MIT, where she trained with Peter Sorger. She was recruited to manage the Transgenic Animal Core Facility for the MIT Center for Cancer Research, the predecessor of the Koch Institute. After proven success in expanding transgenics services to include gene targeting and phenotyping for what has grown into the Preclinical Modeling Core, she launched and directed a Lentivirus Production Core from 2003-2006. Similarly, she was the founding director of the Applied Therapeutics & Whole Animal Imaging Core from 2008-2009. It has expanded and developed into today’s Preclinical Imaging & Testing Core.
Burds Connor currently serves as both the director of the Preclinical Modeling Core and as project coordinator for Preclinical Imaging & Testing. Aurora received MIT’s Infinite Mile awards in 2005 and 2015. She was a member of the MIT Committee of Animal Care (IACUC) from 2008-2011, an instructor for the 2013 MSRP-Bio Program, and serves as an advisor for Life Sciences at the MIT Museum.