I am a graduate student in the Watnick lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, where I am investigating how chitin in the peritrophic matrix of arthropods affects colonization of the bacterial pathogenVibrio cholerae in the fruit fly and in other non-model organisms. I am broadly interested in host-microbe interactions, infectious disease, food safety, and environmental microbiology.
I am originally from Arizona, where I earned a B.S. in Microbiology and Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona before coming to Harvard. As an undergraduate, I worked under Dr. David Baltrus where I investigated the mechanism behind a tailocin (a protein complex produced by bacteria that kills closely related bacteria with high specificity and precision) within a Pseudomonas strain capable of targeting E. coli O157:H7. I also had the incredible opportunity to conduct research in the labs of Dr. Brandon Kim (The University of Texas at Dallas), Dr. Jeffrey Rybak (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital), and Dr. Marc Orbach (The University of Arizona).
Beyond the lab, I am passionate about mentorship, scientific communication, and science policy. In my free time, I enjoy playing board games, watching movies, and foraging for mushrooms!“