Biography
I graduated from Boston College with a B.S. in Biochemistry in 2010. During my time as an undergraduate and continuing afterwards, I was a member of the laboratory of Prof. Tomer Avidor-Reiss in the Dept. of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School (2008-2012) and the University of Toledo (2012-2013), where I used Drosophila spermatogenesis as a model to study a unique ciliary gatekeeping mechanism associated with human disease. Following this, I entered the UNC MD-PhD program and completed my first two years of medical school. In 2015, I transitioned to the Neurobiology Curriculum and joined the lab of Prof. Garret Stuber in the Dept. of Psychiatry and UNC Neuroscience Center.
Research
In the Stuber lab, my work will be primarily involved in the hypothalamus, a major neurosecretory control center whose ancient and diverse neuronal populations integrate essential physiological cues with behavior and experience. In this context, I hope to explore questions regarding neuronal identity by developing high-throughput molecular strategies to define distinct hypothalamic populations and dissect their circuit-level contributions to innate, conserved neurobiological processes.
Publications
Awards
Neurobiology Curriculum NRSA (T32) Training Grant, NIH/NINDS
Medical Scientist Training Program NRSA (T32) Training Grant, NIH/NIGMS
Postbaccalaureate Research Fellowship, NIH/NIGMS
Mayo Clinic Foundation Academic Scholarship
