About me
I am a bioinformatician and computational biologist who leverages -omics analyses to tell data-driven stories that deepen our understanding of microbial interactions. Previously, I was a NSF Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology at UC Riverside advised by Dr. Jason Stajich. While there I worked on a variety of computational projects (genomic, metagenomic and phylogenomic) at the interface of both host (insect, amphibian, seaweed and seagrass) and microbe (bacteria, fungi, virus) interactions. I received my Ph.D. in Integrative Genetics and Genomics at UC Davis in Dr. Jonathan Eisen’s laboratory where I studied the seagrass microbiome and seagrass mycobiome. I received my B. A. in Molecular and Cell Biology with a Genetics, Genomics and Development emphasis from UC Berkeley in the spring of 2013. While at UC Berkeley I participated in research in Dr. Ellen Simms’ lab on multiple projects involving rhizobia-legume symbiosis. My research interests have ranged from sea to summit and encompassed questions related to host-microbiome interactions, host-microbiome coevolution and understudied fungi.