Prof. Mitchel received her S.B. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from MIT. There she was exposed through undergraduate research opportunities to synthetic biology and tissue engineering, and became hooked on the idea that we can use engineering tools to ask biological questions through building and interrogating model systems. Prof. Mitchel went on to receive her Ph.D. from Brown University in Biomedical Engineering. As a graduate student, she used soft lithography techniques to physically guide the migration and growth of neurons and glial cells, providing insight into strategies for promoting nerve tissue regrowth. From there she went on to do postdoctoral work in the the Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.