Virginia Espina

Virginia (Ginny) Espina, Ph.D., is a Research Associate Professor at George Mason University in the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine. Dr. Espina is the technical director and manager of the CAP/CLIA accredited Clinical Proteomics laboratory.

She received her BS in Medical Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology, an MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in Biosciences from George Mason University. She has strong operations management, technical, and regulatory skills with over 20 years of experience in clinical and academic research labs.

Dr. Espina designs and performs basic/translational research studies and human clinical trials, which focus on elucidating potential therapeutic targets in the tissue microenvironment for cancer and infectious diseases. Since 2002, her translational research projects have resulted in 6 issued patents, in the areas of tissue preservation, mechanisms of development/treatment of premalignant lesions, and novel diagnostic technologies.

Her work has led to the widespread adoption of reverse-phase protein array and laser capture microdissection for personalized medicine. Dr. Espina is frequently an invited speaker at technology workshops and international conferences. Dr. Espina is on the editorial board of Molecular and Cellular Proteomics and serves as a peer reviewer for several journals.

Dr. Espina is an author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and editor of Molecular Profiling in the Methods in Molecular Biology series. She is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Thyroid Association (ATA), American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), and American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). Dr. Espina is a board-certified Medical Technologist (ASCP).