Research

Thus far, I have participated in three independent laboratories that span the range of epigenetics, genetics, and cardiac related projects.

While at Pitzer College, I joined Dr. Emily Wiley's laboratory and conducted novel epigenetic research on the histone deacetylase Thd2 in Tetrahymena thermophila.  Specifically, I examined Thd2’s effects on histone acetylation and methylation in both euchromatin and heterochromatin.  The findings of this research formulated my thesis in molecular biology and were presented to the faculty and students of The Claremont Colleges.

Immediately after receiving my bachelor's degree, I traveled to Tübingen, Germany to further my research experience at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society.  I joined Dr. Felicity Jones' laboratory to study the molecular basis of adaptive divergence and speciation in natural vertebrate populations using three-spined stickleback fish as a model organism.  While at the Max Planck Institute, I helped design experiments to discover recombination hotspots using microsatellites and DNA sequencing, while also using molecular cloning techniques to create plasmids for transfection.

After studying the genetics of speciation, I joined Dr. Joseph Woo laboratory at Stanford’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Department.  The multidisciplinary nature of the Woo lab offered countless opportunities to expand my research knowledge.  I contributed to a broad range of cardiac research projects including RNA-sequencing studies of human cardiac tissue, utilizing cyanobacteria to re-oxygenate ischemic tissue, engineering and utilizing an ex vivo heart pump to measure pressures and flow rates pre and post cardiac operations, developing synthetic blood vessels, and delivering bioengineered, therapeutic cytokines into cardiac tissue in an ovine myocardial infarction model via a sheer-thinning hydrogel, among several others.  These efforts amounted to several publications.

Publications

Presentations