BioMed Bridge, LLC, was founded in 2010 by Heidi J. Chial, Ph.D., who serves as the company’s President and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Chial has broad experience as a scientific writer, editor, and consultant in diverse biomedical and basic science subject areas. Most recently, she was a technical writer and patent drafter in her role as a Technical Specialist for the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Practice Groups of Finnegan, one of the world’s largest intellectual property law firms. Dr. Chial currently serves as the Scientific Coordinator and an Expert for the “Ask an Expert” link of the Nature Publishing Group/Nature Education website Scitable.com. She has also authored 17 articles for Nature Education on a variety of topics related to human genetic diseases and genomics.

Dr. Chial received postdoctoral research training at Stanford University School of Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and she was a postdoctoral student in the prestigious Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Summer Neurobiology Course. She received her Ph.D. degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her B.A. degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology from Gustavus Adolphus College. She has more than 13 years of hands-on academic research experience––including nearly seven years of postdoctoral research training––spanning yeast to humans, and cancer biology to molecular neuroscience. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Chial developed an NIH NRSA-funded research program, wrote manuscripts and grants, reviewed manuscripts for top-tier journals, and taught graduate student courses. Dr. Chial was also an Assistant Professor of Biology and Chemistry at St. Olaf College where she taught undergraduate lecture and laboratory courses in genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology.

Dr. Chial has authored numerous research articles published in peer-reviewed journals, and she received both public and private funding to support her research. She is fortunate to enjoy a career path that has allowed her to combine new and unexpected scientific discoveries with effective scientific communication. Through her work at BioMed Bridge, LLC, Dr. Chial is privileged to interact with an incredibly talented group of clients and colleagues and to encounter new science, insightful questions, and groundbreaking discoveries every day.

All BioMed Bridge consultants have Ph.D. and/or M.D. degrees. Our Ph.D. consultants have postdoctoral research experience, and our M.D. consultants are fellowship-trained physicians with extensive research experience. All BioMed Bridge consultants have strong publication records with first-author publications in high-caliber, peer-reviewed journals. BioMed Bridge consultants have extensive experience writing, editing, and reviewing scientific manuscripts, grant applications, abstracts, posters, and other technical documents. The majority of BioMed Bridge consultants received NIH and/or private funding to support the research programs they developed during their postdoctoral training. All BioMed Bridge consultants have strong mentorship skills and teaching experience at the undergraduate or graduate level; some are current or former professors.

BioMed Bridge, LLC, provides services individually tailored to meet the needs of our clients. We work directly with our clients and interact with them throughout the duration of each project. Our broad collective scientific/medical training, professional experience, and expertise allow us to understand and appreciate the scientific and clinical relevance of our clients’ work. As such, we are uniquely qualified and committed to helping our clients best achieve their professional goals.

Please follow the links below to learn more about Dr. Chial’s professional experience and publications.

Dr. Chial’s LinkedIn profile:
Dr. Chial’s Nature Education profile: Link to Profile

Selected Peer-Reviewed Original Research Articles:

Chial, H. J., Lenart, P., and Chen, Y. Q. (2010). APPL Proteins FRET at the BAR: Direct Observation of APPL1 and APPL2 BAR Domain-Mediated Interactions on Cell Membranes Using FRET Microscopy. PLoS ONE 5(8): e12471. Link to Article

Chial, H. J., Wu, R., Ustach, C., McPhail, L. C., Mobley, W. C., and Chen, Y. Q. (2008). Membrane Targeting by APPL1 and APPL2: Dynamic Scaffolds that Oligomerize and Bind Phosphoinositides. Traffic 9: 215-229. Link to Article

Chial, H. J., Stemm-Wolf, A. J., McBratney, S., and Winey, M. (2000). Yeast Eap1p, an eIF4E-Associated Protein, has a Separate Function Involving Spindle Pole Bodies and Genetic Stability. Current Biology 10: 1519-1522. Link to Article

Chial, H. J., Giddings, T. H. Jr., Siewert, E. A., Hoyt, M. A., and Winey, M. (1999). Altered Dosage of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Spindle Pole Body Duplication Gene, NDC1, Leads to Aneuploidy and Polyploidy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96: 10200-10205. Link to Article

Chial, H. J., Rout, M. P., Giddings, T. H., and Winey, M. (1998). Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ndc1p is a Shared Component of Nuclear Pore Complexes and Spindle Pole Bodies. Journal of Cell Biology 143: 1789-1800. Link to Article

Selected Peer-Reviewed Educational and Review Articles:

Chial, H. (2009). Scientists Can Analyze Gene Function by Deleting Gene Sequences. Scitable.com, Essentials of Genetics eBook, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Cytogenetic Methods in Diagnosing Genetic Disorders. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Polygenic Inheritance and Gene Mapping. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Mendelian Genetics: Patterns of Inheritance and Single-Gene Disorders. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Proto-Oncogenes to Oncogenes to Cancer. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Tumor Suppressor (TS) Genes and the Two-Hit Hypothesis. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Gene Mapping and Disease. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Huntington’s Disease: The Discovery of the Huntingtin Gene. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Somatic Mosaicism and Chromosomal Disorders. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). DNA Sequencing Technologies Key to the Human Genome Project. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room and Genomics Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Rare Genetic Disorders: Learning About Genetic Disease Through Gene Mapping, SNPs, and Microarray Data. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Genetic Regulation of Cancer. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). DNA Fingerprinting Using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLP): No Genome Sequence Required. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genomics Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Cytogenetic Methods and Disease: Flow Cytometry, CGH and FISH. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. (2008). Gene-Based Therapeutic Approaches. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. and Craig, J. (2008). Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and Obesity. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. and Craig, J. (2008). mtDNA and Mitochondrial Diseases. Nature Education 1(1), Scitable.com, Genes and Disease Topic Room, Nature Publishing Group. Link to Article

Chial, H. J. and Winey, M. (1999). Mechanisms of genetic instability revealed by analysis of yeast spindle pole body duplication. Biology of the Cell 91: 439-450. Link to Article