I am currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Dr. John Tuthill’s lab at the University of Washington, where I anticipate completing my degree in Fall 2025. I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2018 (Go Slugs!). After completing my undergraduate studies with Dr. James Ackman, I worked as a Research Specialist in Dr. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor’s laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania for two years. During this time, I developed new, more objective assays, and computational tools to assess acute and chronic pain states in rodent models.
As a graduate student, my research aims to develop strategies to delineate neuronal pathways downstream of Drosophila nociceptors that drive aversive escape behaviors. I employ a combination of optogenetic activation, precise genetic silencing techniques, single-cell RNA sequencing, and neural electron microscopy circuit reconstruction to gain a comprehensive understanding of these pathways.
(staining of ppk-Gal4, Taken by: Bryan Lim (Feng Wei Yu’s Lab)
Notable graduate awards:
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellowship (2022)
- NSFGRFP Honorable Mention, Life Sciences - Neurosciences (2022)
- NIH T32 Predoctoral Training Program in the Neurosciences (2020-21)