I am an MD/PhD student in the Cornish laboratory working in the fields of chemical biology and synthetic biology. My research interests include: engineering the cell’s protein synthetic machinery; in vitro and in vivo directed evolution; and the development of new chemical tools and reagents for biological imaging. My main focus has been in the development of engineered RNA devices that regulate protein expression in eukaryotes. Using a combination of in vitro directed evolution, rational design, and in vivo directed evolution techniques, I have developed a platform for assembling RNA switches that modify protein translation outputs in response to small molecule inputs. I am interested in implementing these gene expression control mechanisms for cellular engineering applications that may find utility in medical diagnostics or cell-based therapies.

Before enrolling in the MD/PhD program at Columbia, I received my ScB in chemistry from Brown University. My prior research experiences include the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for drug discovery (Gregory Ott, Cephalon Pharmaceuticals), the development of synthetic methodology using transition-metal catalysis (William Trenkle, Brown University), and the development of stapled peptide biological reagents (Gregory Verdine, Harvard University). 

See also: Graduate Students Invent Technique for Reprogramming Translation.