Department: Chemical and Biological Engineering Faculty Adviser: A. James Link Year of Study: G3 Undergraduate School: Pennsylvania State University Undergraduate Major: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
I am a 2nd year graduate student in the CBE department who graduated from Penn State with a major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. At Penn State, I worked with Dr. Jordan Bisanz to develop engineered Lactobacillus probiotics as therapeutics. I then spent over a year working at Merck on an in vitro pharmacology team and a preclinical/clinical bioanalytical automation team in the vaccine discovery space before joining the CBE department at Princeton as a graduate student. Outside of lab, I enjoy traveling, hiking, and going to the beach when the weather is nice!
I love to be outside (hiking, beach, etc.) when the weather is nice!
My research project involves the discovery, isolation, purification, and characterization of novel lasso peptides from bacteria. Particularly, the focus is on lasso peptides that have potent antibacterial activity, making them attractive as potential antibiotic drug candidates that are desperately needed due to bacterial pathogens developing resistance to many currently available antibiotics. Additional interests include engineering these lasso peptides to create more potent variants. This research lies at the intersection of microbiology, molecular biology, and chemistry as it involves molecular cloning in E. coli, protein and peptide expressions and purifications, and in vitro antimicrobial testing. Important techniques include the use of liquid-chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to identify and purify lasso peptides for antimicrobial testing.
Interested in participating in Summer 2027 ReMatch+ program.
