Courtney Benson, Ph.D.

Director, R&D

Courtney has her B.S. and M.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology, both earned at San Diego State University where she studied microbial diversity in steam vent sublimates, and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University at Buffalo. During her graduate work she studied the neurodevelopment of schizophrenia using 2D and 3D models, which included induced pluripotent stem cells, human embryonic stem cells, immortalized cell lines and cerebral organoids. Some of the techniques used included CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, cell differentiation (2D and 3D), and protein methods.

She has served as Research Assistant I at the Scripps Research Institute, where she managed a large neurodevelopmental lab. She has also worked at UC San Diego in a couple labs, where she managed, performed research, and collaborated on multiple projects. She was also an independent contract editor for American Journal Experts, where she edited scientific content to be submitted for peer review and publication, grant proposals and other scientific-related writings, editing over 350 documents. 

Courtney served as President of the Association for Women in Science San Diego (AWIS-SD) from February 2018 – January 2020 and is enthusiastic about outreach in the community. She started a new committee in the organization called the Early Career Committee in which the committee aims to provide tools to members that have transitioned into industry from academia. Courtney is excited to help generate food products at BlueNalu, that will be delicious for our consumers and sustainable for our oceans.