Kristy Wendt

Kristy Wendt is a Biomedical Engineering predoctoral trainee in the Voice Research Training program under the mentorship of Dr. Susan Thibeault. Wendt works in the Thibeault lab to engineer functional vocal fold (VF) epithelium from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC).

Unique tissue features of the mature VF are closely integrated with a remarkable physical function: to vibrate symmetrically and regularly at multiple frequencies. The regularity of these harmonics is controlled by characteristics specific to the tissue: tension, elasticity, and mass, as well as the action of laryngeal muscles that contract and relax to raise and lower the frequency of the human voice.

At the cellular level, the luminal surface of the VF serves to protect these functional characteristics of the tissue. The Thibeault lab has already identified a number of VF prenatal cues and continues to optimize approaches to guide differentiation of stem cells toward mature VF epithelium. New single-cell scRNAseq methods offer exciting applications to discover how the transcriptome changes in space during development to enhance our in vitro approach. Wendt was drawn to the program by the emphasis and efficacy of the Voice Research Training Program in translating biomedical engineering research to the clinic.

Wendt is a mother to three children in Madison, Wisconsin, a Python hobbyist, and a Fourier and medical imaging enthusiast.