Dr. Mirela Milescu joined the Scientific Review Branch (SRB), NINDS in the Spring of 2020 as a Scientific Review Officer for the Special Emphasis Panels. She received a MSc in Technological Biochemistry from the University of Bucharest, a PhD in Molecular Biology from the SUNY Buffalo, and trained in ion channel biophysics as a postdoctoral fellow at NINDS. Prior to joining NINDS, Mirela was a faculty member at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where she established an externally funded research program in molecular biophysics focused on ion channel structure, function, and pharmacology. She used a combination of protein engineering, electrophysiological and optical methods, kinetic and molecular modeling, and structural techniques, to study the mechanisms of ion channel activation by voltage or temperature, and their regulation by toxins, membrane lipids, and auxiliary subunits.