About Me

Passionately pursuing research to improve human lives

As a researcher with experience in a variety of fields, I am a believer in the innovation and insights that can be gained from highly inter-disciplinary research. In 2011, I earned my ScB in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University (Providence, RI). The core focus of my work was and continues to be the investigation of human susceptibility to diseases and disorders in order to impact human health and alleviate suffering.

In order to uncover the evolutionary underpinnings of human-specific cognitive abilities and neurobiological susceptibilities, I then took on jobs in two labs simultaneously (as Lab Manager and Research Assistant, respectively) at The George Washington University (Washington, DC). At the same institution, I went on to earn my MPhil in Human Paleobiology (2017) investigating the neuroanatomical, transcriptomic and genomic evolution of the hippocampus, adult neurogenesis and episodic memory. During this time, I became increasingly interested in applying programming and computational techniques to expand the scale and scope of the questions that I’m able to address.

In the pursuit of further advancing my skills as a computational researcher, I thereafter accepted a position as a Bioinformatician at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York City, NY). There, in the labs of Dr. Avi Ma'ayan and Dr. Towfique Raj, I helped to develop a number of open-access bioinformatics tools; e.g. X2K Web, Geneshot, catalogueR and echolocatoR. My collaborators and I also published work revealing cell-type-specific neurogenomic mechanisms underlying neurological conditions (e.g. Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease) through the application of statistical and machine learning techniques to large-scale multi-omics and clinical data.

I am now pursuing my PhD at the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College London within the Neurogenomics Lab. The focus of my work is the application of statistical and machine learning techniques to multi-omics and clinical phenotypic data to accurately predict cell-type- and developmentally-contextualized effects of neurological diseases, and ultimately identify effective therapeutics.

You can learn more about my research experiences, publications, and tools in the Research Portfolio and Timeline sections. You can also download my full CV below.



Download CV



Core Qualifications & Skills

Programming

Rapidly learns new software & languages to solve problems & develop analytical pipelines.

Research

10+ years of highly multi-disciplinary dry lab, wet lab & field research.

Scientific Writing

Consistently presents scientific evidence in an organized, concise & effective manner.

Communication

Engaging speaker capable of distilling complex concepts for a wide range of audiences.

Scripting
  • Python
    (e.g. Tensorflow, Keras, Scikit-learn)
  • R
    (e.g. Bioconductor)
  • UNIX / Bash
Web Development
  • Javascript
    (e.g. Three.js, D3.js, Bootstrap)
  • HTML
  • CSS
Databases
  • MongoDB
  • SQL
Fields of Study
  • Neuroscience
  • AI & Machine Learning
  • Systems Biology
  • Bioinformatics
  • Computational Biology
  • Genomics
  • Transcriptomics
  • Biomedicine
  • Developmental Cognition
  • Human Origins & Biological Anthropology
  • Evolutionary Phylogenetics
  • Paleoclimatology & Ecology
  • Running Biomechanics
Evidence
  • 5 research grants (~$70,000) since 2016
  • 9 peer-reviewed scientific publications
  • 15 international conference posters
Experience
  • 3 conference podium presentations
  • 14 conference poster presentations
  • 10+ departmental presentations
  • 5 college-level course guest lectures
    • Biological anthropology
    • Biopsychology
    • Evolutionary neuroscience
    • Computational biology & bioinformatics
  • 10+ science outreach programs since 2009

Research Portfolio

Links to publications, tools, and/or websites I've created or contributed to.

Subset by Content

Subset by Field



Research Experience Timeline

An interactive timeline detailing my key research experiences

Artwork

Science-related original artwork I've created over the years.

Contact

Feel free to reach out anytime!