I earned my BS in biochemistry at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, from which I graduated magna cum laude in 2012. While at Temple, I performed research on the biochemical and biophysical properties of lipid bubbles called liposomes and their potential utility as drug-delivery vehicles under the mentorship of Professor Parkson Chong, resulting in a journal article in Biophysical Journal as well as multiple meeting presentation abstracts. I also conducted NASA-funded physical chemistry research to develop sensors for hydrazine, an explosive and toxic rocket fuel, under the mentorship of Professor Eric Borguet.

After receiving my BS, I entered graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where I completed my PhD in molecular and cell biology in 2017. At Berkeley, I was awarded a research grant through the National Science Foundation’s prestigious and highly selective Graduate Research Fellowships Program. For my doctoral research, which was conducted under the mentorship of Professor Eva Nogales, I used cryo–electron microscopy to determine the structure of the NAIP5–NLRC4 inflammasome, a protein complex involved in the mammalian innate immune response to pathogens. I am the co-first author of a journal article in Science describing this work, and I am the first and co-corresponding author of a book chapter in Methods in Enzymology detailing the electron microscopy techniques I developed in graduate school. To showcase the results of my PhD research, I created the video below.

My science writing and editing experience dates back to my time in graduate school: I began in 2015 by publishing science articles for the general public in the Berkeley Science Review. While completing my PhD, I also served as an editor of the Berkeley Science Review‘s print magazine and the editor in chief of the blog. Additionally, in 2016, I took on an internship—which eventually evolved into a professional freelance role as a science writer—producing somewhat technical articles requiring a basic understanding of biology for the Genetics Society of America’s blog, Genes to Genomes.

After completing my PhD, I continued to contribute as a science writer for Genes to Genomes and began to obtain additional freelance opportunities to write nontechnical articles on science and medicine, publishing my work via media outlets including Business Insider, Live Science, Mental Floss, Greatist, and more. For samples of my nontechnical science and medical writing, please click here. In 2019, I also took on a full-time role writing technical scientific and medical articles for Cancer Discovery, the flagship academic journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, where I have published several hundred articles and am currently employed as of 2021. For more information about my technical scientific and medical writing, please click here.

I have provided independent scientific consulting services since the beginning of 2019, when I was initially approached by a client interested in my background in electron microscopy. Since then, I have contributed to several projects as a freelance scientific consultant either remotely or near my home in Philadelphia, PA, providing services including interpretation of articles in scientific journals, guidance on planning experiments, reviewing and summarizing scientific literature on various topics, and much more. For additional information on the services I provide as a scientific consultant, please click here.