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| STUDENT BIOGRAPHY |
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| Christine Huang |
| Graduate Student |
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| I was born and raised in Sacramento, CA and attended college at the University of California, San Diego, where I obtained a B.S. in Biochemistry/Chemistry and an MS in Chemistry. My initial forays into research stemmed from a curiosity for the practical applications of science, and I joined the Signaling Systems Laboratory in 2004, under the direction of Prof. Alex Hoffmann. The lab's interests centered on the NF-kB signaling pathway, specifically the set of transcription factors that hold important roles in controlling the inflammatory response, cellular growth and development, and apoptosis. My goal was to study the regulatory properties of several NF-kB inhibitors known as IkB proteins, using cell biology techniques to track their expression and resulting effects on NF-kB activity. In 2005, I also started an internship at Pfizer La Jolla, where I joined Dr. Ciarán Cronin's group in exploring high-throughput techniques for protein expression and purification.
Graduate school was the natural extension of my scientific interests, and I joined Prof. Liang Tong's lab in Spring 2008. Using x-ray crystallography, I am focusing on the structural and biochemical studies of a highly-conserved protein involved in lipid catabolism and whose deficiency results in severe metabolic deficits. I hope that by learning more about the structural basis of enzymatic activity, I will held shed light on its mechanism of action and offer insight into potential therapeutic strategies against the disease pathology.
When I'm not in lab, I enjoy exploring all the sights and activities unique to New York. So far, that includes biking throughout the city and surrounding areas, excursions with the Hiking Club, dabbling in photography, pretending to understand the subway, and of course, celebrating snow days as only a Californian can.
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