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About

I'm a cell biologist and biochemist, and an Associate Project Scientist in the Department of Surgery at UCLA. Patch onto the neuron below and make it fire. Each spike unlocks a step in my path.

Patch clamp rig

Current clamp, whole cell

Butyrate in bath

Membrane −70 mV Spikes 0 Rate 0 Hz

Simplified model. A leaky integrate-and-fire neuron: injected current charges the membrane until it crosses threshold, the cell fires, then resets. Here butyrate simply makes the cell a bit easier to excite, a stand-in for how gut metabolites can tune neuronal excitability. Real effects are more complex. Press and hold the button, or use the Space key while it's focused.

About me

I study how cells take up and use metabolites, image tissue from single cells to whole brains, and analyze the data that comes out of it. My bench work spans cell culture, LC-MS metabolite measurement, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, tissue clearing, and fluorescence imaging, and I work with RNA-seq data on the computational side.

What makes my work different is that I treat everything as multidirectional. Gut microbes, the metabolites they make (like butyrate), the gut barrier, and the brain all signal to one another, so I study how each one shapes the others, and behavior, rather than following a single one-way path. Next, I want to build patient-matched gut organoids and gut-on-chip models to study the GI symptoms that often come with autism.

Outside the lab, I make art.

2024–now
Associate Project ScientistUCLA Department of Surgery. Data Project Manager on a CIRM-funded study.
Postdoc
Postdoctoral research, PathologyChildren's Hospital Los Angeles
2021
PhD, Clinical Experimental TherapeuticsUSC School of Pharmacy