Krista Banks
Lab Manager and Research Associate
I’ve always been enthralled by science, even as a very young child. While my mother encouraged my reading hobbies, my dad introduced me to lots of new projects like building the Visible Man and Visible Woman models, or the Grey’s Anatomy Coloring Book before I reached age 10.
A college education at the University of Arizona tapped into that love of science and rewarded me with a BS in Microbiology with a focus in immunology. With some practical lab experience under my belt, I landed a job at The Scripps Research Institute studying Hepatitis B Virus replication. Shortly thereafter came an offer from Johnson and Johnson, Pharmaceutical Research and Development in La Jolla, CA where I expanded my exposure to new techniques in drug discovery.
I then transitioned to Celgene where I had the opportunity to grow my experience in pharmacokinetics and learn about bioanalytics for a few years, but a life event forced me to take a pause and reevaluate my situation.
I moved to Colorado and found myself managing several labs in the drug testing arena, and while the work was complementary to my skills, I longed for a return to academia. In 2020, a position was posted at CSU to work in Pharmacology for Dr. Gustafson at the Flint Animal Cancer Center, the position I currently hold. I feel fortunate that my various exposures to scientific and management skills in previous roles have culminated in obtaining this position, where my daily responsibilities are quite varied.
My job includes helping to coordinate studies, mostly in vivo, but some in vitro. I sometimes process and analyze samples by LC-MS/MS as part of the Drug Discovery and Development Shared Resources Core, I manage and organize our lab stocks, and I get to help guide some incredibly clever scientists of the future.
Having lost my mother to Glioblastoma Multiforme and currently having my father battle non-small cell lung cancer, and having a familial line heavily afflicted with various forms of cancers, holding a position in research where breakthroughs are being made is not only reassuring but also feeds my passion and commitment to science. I believe this dedication will help us collectively make progress in the future of cancer treatments.
My personal life is filled with birds and kitties – I have been a volunteer with the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program for about 10 years and spend weekends doing outreach with their education department. During the summer my husband and I grow a huge garden, and we keep 8 chickens to help us with natural insect mitigation. Those hens are Daisy, Dahlia, Sweet Pea, Hey Hey, Cataliya, Buttercup, and Thelma and Louise. Our 3 elderly kitties are Nefertini, Loki, and Franklin.