Walnut Creek, California, United States
I am a computational biologist with a background in plant biology, phenotyping, plant/microbial interactions, and single cell RNA-sequencing interested in leveraging functional genomics and informatics capabilities to support and drive novel discoveries. Specialties: Molecular Biological techniques, plant phenotyping and growth systems, R programming
In a collaborative project, I developed and applied a TnSeq-style approach to understanding microbial fitness in the rhizosphere of Arabidopsis roots using Pseudomonas fluorescens as a model plant-growth promoting microbe. This work is on-going.
As a postdoc in Steve Kay's lab, I studied the diurnal and circadian growth habits of the cereal model, Brachypodium distachyon with the goal of understanding how external rhythmic temperature and light cues influence growth at the molecular level.
As a student in Joanne Chory's lab, I studied the dynamics of how plants respond to their light environment using a combination of genetics, gene expression methods, and image-based phenotyping.
I worked at BTI over two summers (2005 and 2006) profiling the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in tomato fruit over various stages of ripening. I also gained experience in RNA purification, cDNA synthesis and labelling, and microarray hybridization methods for profiling gene expression phenotypes in Tomato. I was mentored primarily by Dr. Rob Alba in Dr. James Giovannoni's laboratory.