Vanya is a Molecular and Cell Biologist and has worked in the field of synthetic and engineering biology at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). At both institutions she worked with a team of biologists, physicists, engineers, and statisticians and found many benefits of the interdisciplinary nature of these teams. At NIST Vanya assisted with the early stages of establishing and growing the NIST Cellular Engineering Group by participating in the recruitment of post-docs and lab assistants, grant writing, and converting two laboratory spaces into biological laboratories. She was responsible for sourcing equipment, consumables, and reagents as well as establishing safety protocols and routine laboratory maintenance schedules. Vanya was also involved in outreach and establishing collaborations with world leading laboratories in the field of genetic engineering of living systems. She was actively involved in co-writing multiple successful grants, totaling close to $7M over 5 years to establish the NIST Living Measurements Systems Foundry.  In her time away from science, Vanya has been homeschooling her two children and enjoying the flexibility of tailoring their education to their needs and interests. Vanya also enjoys teaching group classes and this experience sparked the idea of founding CELLS.