Valerie Tassinari joined the ALS Therapy Development Institute in 2010. She earned a BA in Marine Science from Boston University in 2012 and an MS in Molecular Biotechnology from Northeastern University in 2020. Her work at the Institute introduced her to the desperate need for more research into neurodegenerative diseases and was the reason she chose to pursue a degree in biotechnology. At the Institute, she works on the in vivo preclinical research team. Her responsibilities include managing the zebrafish facility, validating gene expression endpoints in mouse drug studies, and performing gene copy number analyses to facilitate high-quality and interpretable target discovery and pharmacology data.