Louise L. Hansen, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she works in the laboratory of Dr. David Walt. Her current research focuses on the development of novel bead-based ELISA technologies for the ultrasensitive detection of infectious disease biomarkers. Across her academic training in bioengineering, analytical chemistry, and assay development, Louise’s work centers on inventing accessible technologies that enable precise protein measurements—particularly at the single-cell level—using widely available laboratory tools.
She earned her PhD in the UC Berkeley–UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering, where she led the development of an electrophoretic separation method for quantifying cytoskeletal protein complexes from single cells. During her doctoral training, she also interned with GH Labs, an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she contributed to the development of point-of-care diagnostics.
Louise’s broader research interests lie at the intersection of bioengineering and global health, with a particular focus on designing affinity-based, ultrasensitive protein assays for diverse sample types. Her long-term goal is to develop technologies that both empower other scientists and expand access to advanced diagnostic tools in clinical and resource-limited settings.