Fischell Institute Womxn’s History Month Spotlight: Sydney Overton

Sydney Overton is featured on the UMD Fischell Institute Womxn's History Month Spotlight. Sydney is a second-year electrical engineering Ph.D. student in Fischell Institute Fellow and Herbert Rabin Distinguished Chair in Engineering Reza Ghodssi’s MEMS Sensors and Actuators Lab (MSAL). She graduated from Virginia Tech with her bachelor's in electrical engineering and physics in 2019.

Overton’s research focuses on developing an ingestible serotonin-sensing capsule device to help elucidate the role of serotonin in the gut microbiota-brain axis (GMBA). This entails developing and characterizing a microneedle electrochemical sensor capable of achieving real-time serotonin measurements in the gut epithelium.

This research is paramount to understanding specific serotonergic mechanisms and the downstream role of serotonin in the GMBA. By creating a sensing platform that is integrated with microneedles, Overton’s goal is to access the region of interest and perform electrochemical sensing simultaneously.

More information can be found on UMD ECE News. (15 - March / 2024)