I am a 5th year student in the BMS program, presently finishing up my Ph.D. studies. I received my B.Sc. in biology from Drexel University in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. As part of their 5-year cooperative education program, we were able to go on three 6-month internships. It was during my first internship that I fell in love with research and I never looked back. I worked in an oncology lab at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where I studied an immunotherapeutic protein for the treatment of cancer and also in comparative genomics lab there where I learned how to do RNAi screens. During the school year, I worked in the lab of Jeremy Lee, where I was studying muscle development and Post-receiving my degree, I trained in the lab of Aleister Saunders, where I became immersed in the world of aging and Alzheimer's disease. As you can see, I dabbled quite a bit in many different areas of research, but behind the scenes I became really fascinated by small RNA gene regulation. I became hooked on small RNAs back in 2001, when the Tuschl, Bartel and Ambros labs, discovered that hundreds of small RNAs exist in animal genomes. Since I just could not get small RNAs off of my mind, I joined the McManus lab and decided to generate a mouse model in which I depleted miRNAs in the brain (specifically in dopaminoceptive neurons). When I am not in the lab, you can probably find me across the street in a BodyJam/Pump/Combat class, attempting a new recipe, or exploring this fabulous city.
After I completed my studies on the Roles of Dicer in Dopaminoceptive neurons, I became fascinated with post-transcriptional regulation of these RNAs in neurons and I have developed a biochemical assay to examine their turnover.