About me

I am a second-year graduate student at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas in the Biomedical Sciences program. I am a non-traditional student, having worked for 6+ years in the biotech industry. I worked in early drug discovery of small and large molecules for companies targeting neurodegenerative disorders and cancers in both Boston (Roivant Sciences) and San Francisco (Denali Therapeutics).

What I do now

I am studying the biology of Torsin, known to cause Primary Dystonia, in the lab of Dr. William Dauer.

My industry experience

My work has centered on proteins at every level: understanding what keeps them stable and functional, probing how they interact with binding partners and uncovering pathways and mechanisms through which they exert their biological functions.

My work involved:

Assay development: Designing and optimizing biochemical and biophysical assays to measure characteristics of therapeutic compounds like:

  • Binding Efficacy: Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), Homogeneous Time-Resolved Fluorescence (HTRF) assay, Fluorescence polarization (FP) assay, flow-cytometry based assays.
  • Kinetics and activity: luminescence and fluorescence plate-based assays.
  • Ex-vivo PK/PD assessment: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), Meso Scale Discovery (MSD) assay.

Investigating mechanisms and pathways: Developing cell-based assays to study proteins of interest.

  • Skills: Immunocytochemistry, high content imaging, western blot.

Protein purification: Expressing and purifying recombinant proteins from bacterial, mammalian and baculovirus systems for downstream biochemical, biophysical and structural work.

  • Instrumentation and automation: Operated and trained other personnel to use sensitive instruments like Cytek Aurora (FACS), BD Canto (FACS), Biacore 8K (SPR), Agilent Bravo (liquid handler), AKTA-Pure (Chromatography).

Why do a PhD now?

While industry gave me broad technical expertise, I wanted to ask fundamental questions about the role of proteins in cells and how mutations affect their biology, causing diseases. Specifically, I wanted to study this at a cellular level.

When not at the lab bench

I cook, birdwatch, travel, listen to music and enjoy the outdoors.