I graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology and a minor in Philosophy. As an undergraduate, I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Elizabeth Mitcham studying transcriptional regulation in ripening pears. Following graduation, I worked at Genentech as a biologics manufacturing technician and found an interest in cancer drug development. From 2016-2020, I worked at Five Prime Therapeutics as a research associate, first in the Molecular Biology department under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Bosch and then as part of the Immuno-Oncology Discovery department under the supervision of Dr. Art Brace and Dr. Andrew Rankin. I contributed to several early discovery programs, including mechanistic studies and antibody characterization for a novel immune checkpoint molecule in collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb and a novel tumor-expressed receptor that can be directly targeted to arrest cell proliferation.
I joined the University of Michigan in 2020 as a rotating graduate student in the Program for Biomedical Sciences (PIBS). Following rotations, I joined the lab of Dr. Megan Weivoda, with Dr. Evan Keller as my co-mentor. There, I began to work on senescence and tumorigenesis in multiple myeloma precursor lesions, which eventually led to my own project exploring senescence in relapsing multiple myeloma following chemotherapy. In the fall of 2021, the Weivoda lab moved to the Division of Hematology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Following my advancement to candidacy in winter 2022, I re-joined the lab at the Mayo Clinic in my current position as a Visiting Graduate Student. I remain, however, an actively participating graduate student in the Cancer Biology program at the University of Michigan.
In my free time, I enjoy cooking/baking, hiking, running, and board gaming. I am also a big fan of escape rooms, with 60+ successful escapes so far. Recently, I have taken up ice cream making as a hobby, and am taking suggestions for new flavors.
