My education and research have always been driven by my natural curiosity about the inner workings of living organisms, particularly how genes and genomes are regulated. After completing my undergraduate degree in molecular biology, I joined the bioinformatics lab of Sam Griffiths-Jones at the University of Manchester, UK, where in collaboration with Matt Ronshaugen’s lab I studied the evolution and function of microRNAs and became an “omics” enthusiast. I then joined the lab of Alexei Aravin at Caltech as a postdoc, where I pursued the mechanism of action of another class of small regulatory RNAs, piRNAs. My research background has involved different areas including chromatin, RNA, genomics, evolutionary and developmental biology, and intergrated both experimental and bioinformatic components. As a PI, I aim to translate this breadth and integrative approach to my lab.

Teaching: BCH188 Fundamentals of Genomics Technologies

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