Profile

I moved to the UK from the US almost two years ago after finishing my PhD. I’m a postdoc in a group in the Department of Biochemistry at Oxford. A postdoc (short for postdoctoral researcher) is a researcher who has finished their PhD, but has moved to a new lab to acquire additional training. After a postdoc, the researcher might start their own lab or go on to another science-related career.

I live with my boyfriend in Oxford in a very small but cute apartment above a fancy French restaurant. We moved here together from Boston where we met when we were both doing our PhD’s. Outside the lab I enjoy rock climbing, running, drinking hoppy beer, and watching just a little too much Netflix.

Previous to living in Oxford, I have lived in Houston (US), Abu Dhabi (UAE), New Orleans (US), The Hague (Netherlands), and Boston (US). Travelling and moving to new places has always been part of my life and I still love it. One of the great things about being a scientist is that the community is so international. You can travel the world going to conferences or you can even join a lab in a new country to experience a new place and culture.

Your brain produces most of your neurons before you are born. A small family of cells known as stem cells creates neurons over a short period of time. How do the stem cells make the right number of neurons so that the brain becomes the correct size? I want to know which genes are involved in these decisions and how they are turned on and off at the right time. I use fruit flies for these studies because they have simpler brains than humans and are easy to work with in the lab.

In order to study the brains, I dissect them out of tiny fly larvae and grow them in small tubes. The brains can survive this way for a long time—up to 24 hours! I purify biological macromolecules from the brains (usually RNA, which is similar to DNA, but represents the ‘active’ form of the gene). I measure the levels of RNA for each gene in the brain to see which RNAs are being produced and in which types of brain cells.

I can test theories about brain development by creating flies with mutations in specific genes and then looking at what happens to the brain in flies with the altered version of the gene. I use a high-powered microscope to watch the brains grow and divide.

I roll in to lab around 10 am (I’m an anti-morning person), make myself a cup of coffee, check my email, and look at my lab notebook to review the experiments I have planned for the day. Depending on the day, I may be in the lab at my bench the whole time, busy processing samples, or I may be at my computer, thinking and scribbling out notes. That’s the cycle– plan experiments, do experiments, analyze data, discuss with others, repeat… I usually leave lab around 7 pm, and then I’ll make dinner with my boyfriend and maybe go for some exercise.