I graduated from Claremont McKenna College in southern CA last spring and have spent this past year at the NIH in Bethesda, MD. After spending the first twenty one years of my life in California I was ready for a change of scenery and moving to MD has been just that. The weather has left me in a state of shock for most of the year, but aside from that it's been a great experience.

I've been studying the role of BRCA1 (a tumor suppressor that is frequently mutated in familial breast cancer cases) as an E3 ubiquitin ligase with Larry Brody at the NHGRI. This research has actually made it harder for me to identify a specific area of cell/molecular biology that I am interested in studying. I've come to realize that there are many interesting questions to ask about things that I've never thought about even within my own very specific field, let alone about cells in general. With this in mind, I don't think that I can predict what I will be working on at Columbia and beyond. As of today though, I'm interested in studying the roles of assorted post translational modifications on cell cycle regulation. I'm also very interested in learning more about cytoskeletal dynamics throughout the cell cycle and in disease states. Epigenetic modifications have always fascinated me as well.

Aside from the science, I enjoy running (well actually it's more of an addiction after 8 years of xc/track), reading, listening to NPR (living in Washington does this to you), eating cheap food, drinking caffeinated beverages, and going backpacking/spending time outdoors whenever possible. Hopefully living in New York will provide opportunities to add a few new and possibly more exciting items to this list.