I am a third year graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience studying the mechanisms of acute stress and its regulation of an immediate early gene, early growth response protein 3, Egr3 and the neurotrophic factor Bdnf. I received my bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the University of Arizona, during which time I completed a thesis project that involved examining aromatic amino acid residues that facilitate the electron transfer rate of human sulfite oxidase, an enzyme critical for oxidizing sulfites to sulfates. After graduating, I spent a year at the Biosphere 2 conducting research on volatile organic compounds emitted by the Mangifera indica, followed by another two years as a research specialist at the University of Arizona isolating fungal colonies from soil samples obtained from regions within Africa to establish a viable biocontrol to limit the spread of aflatoxins. I moved to Phoenix Arizona to pursue medical research and joined Dr. Gallitano’s laboratory as a technician in the fall of 2015, and joined the graduate program in the fall of 2016. In my free time I enjoy hiking, playing catch with my dog Beowulf, cooking, watching indie films, and traveling across the country.
