I love using math, statistics, and computational approaches to study biology. This love started as an undergrad at the University of New Mexico (UNM), where I studied mathematics while working in a neurology lab as a research assistant. Prior to my senior year, I had the privilege of interning at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. This cemented my desire to pursue a PhD and study Genomics.

After graduating from UNM with my BS in mathematics, I was accepted into the University Program in Genetics and Genomics, at Duke University, where I was trained by Dr Paul Magwene. In collaboration with Dr Joe Heitman’s lab, we studied fungal pathogens of the species Cryptococcus, developing theminto model systems for studying quantitative traits. After obtaining my PhD, I joined the lab of Dr Shawn Starkenburg at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL). As a postdoc at LANL, my work included the implementation of computational approaches for processing multiomic sequencing data from epigenomic experiments (in collaboration with Dr Christina Steadman’s lab), designed to profile changes in host chromatin architecture due to viral infection.

Recently, I’ve become a staff scientist at LANL and have obtained the position of Scientist II. My specialty is in bioinformatics and analytics of whole-genome sequencing data, generated from measurements of our epigenome, including 3D, chromatin conformation assays. My lab is broadly interested in designing systems and using bioinformatics to study/model biological threats to our nation. These include viral and fungal pathogens, which threaten both our public health and the security of agricultural crops. With my collaborators at LANL, we are developing model systems of host-pathogen interactions using multiomic approaches as-well-as building accompanying visualization tools, in mammalian cells, human cell-lines, and plant systems.