ESP Biography



KATHLEEN HIGGINS, MIT Biology MD/PhD student



Major: Health Sciences and Technology

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: G

Picture of Kathleen Higgins

Brief Biographical Sketch:

I grew up in suburbs of San Francisco, but came east to attend Williams College, where I studied biology and chemistry. After graduating, I took a job as a research assistant here in Boston, before starting my MD/PhD in 2016. During my PhD, I studied the evolution of bitter taste receptors in vertebrates (animals with backbones), using the poison dart frog as my main model. Currently, I'm in my final year of medical school and applying to continue my training in psychiatry. In my free time, I play Dungeons and Dragons, read, run, and spoil my pets (one cat, one bunny, two parakeets, and nine tropical fish).



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S14476: Introductory cardiology: how the heart beats and breaks in Spark 2021 (Mar. 13 - 27, 2021)
This course will be a broad overview of how the heart works, from the tiny cells that make up the heart muscle up through the damage sustained during a heart attack. Other topics may include generation of a heart beat, structural abnormalities, arrhythmias, blood pressure, and electrocution. Students will practice listening to heart rhythms using online stethoscope simulators.


S12817: Next Generation Biology in HSSP Spring 2019 (Feb. 23, 2019)
Is 23andMe reliable? What is that new MIT nano center about? Should we be worried about designer babies? An exciting look into new emerging fields in biology. Topics include CRISPR and gene editing, sequencing technologies and ancestry testing, protein engineering, neuroscience, and bioethics.