Michaela Buerdsell, PhD

Michaela Buerdsell joined Antibodies.com in 2026 as a Scientific Content Writer bringing 6 years of experience as an assay development scientist working primarily in drug discovery. Michaela obtained her PhD from Durham University where her research focused on the development of a novel chemical probe targeting active site histidine residues. She synthesised candidate probes, validated specificity on model targets, and then used the probe to identify potential drug targets in the parasite Leishmania. After her PhD, Michaela joined a pharmaceutical company where she developed a broad range of biochemical and cell-based assays to identify lead biologic candidates for autoimmune diseases. She then moved to a contract research organisation (CRO) as a Senior Scientist, leading assay development to support client drug discovery programmes. Most recently, she built a screening pipeline to identify enzymes with enhanced plastic-degrading activity after successive rounds of directed evolution.

Her research spans organic synthesis, enzyme engineering, and assay development across biophysics, biochemistry, and cell biology. She has worked in parasitology, cancer, autoimmune disease, heart disease, and biosensor development, and brings this experience to Antibodies.com.