Ruchelle Buenaventura

Researcher

Ruchelle joined the Laboratory for Brain Injury and Dementia in 2019 after graduating from American University with a B.S. in Neuroscience, a minor in Communications Studies, and a certificate in Leadership and Ethical Development. As an undergraduate, she was a research assistant in Dr. Colin Saldanha’s Lab, where she investigated the role of neuroprotective hormones in traumatic brain injury. For her senior capstone, she was funded as an AU Mathias and District of Columbia NASA Research Scholar to characterize neuroinflammatory genes in sex-differentiated mouse dorsal hippocampi following blast-induced traumatic brain injury. Ruchelle has also worked as a media director and patient advocate at the Epilepsy Foundation of Virginia since 2016. She previously implemented a pilot memory study, assisted in a CDC funded epilepsy memory trial, promoted a Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy Patients (SUDEP) campaign, and served as a memory coach for quality of life in epilepsy inventory (QUOLIE) improvements in working-age epilepsy patients under Dr. Suzanne Bischoff. Since the pandemic, Ruchelle has led a physician-patient educational webinar for promoting awareness in the epilepsy community. She is also a member of Association of Filipino Scientists in America (AFSA), where she advocates for diversity in science with the Filipino community. Ruchelle earned her M.S. in Integrative Neuroscience Program in 2020, where she investigated the acute transcriptomic profile after repetitive head impact. Currently, Ruchelle is a researcher in the Burns Lab and an MBA student at the Kogod School of Business. She has experience with RNA/protein analysis, RNA sequencing analysis, behavioral assays and animal handling.