I am a computational biologist interested in human genetics. I seek to discover the mechanism whereby an individual’s genome and environment interact to produce disease, and to use this knowledge to develop a cure.

I began my career as a Biology undergraduate at MIT, where my first research project as an undergraduate was to invent a method for attaching DNA to glass as part of the then-unfinished Human Genome Project. My career has evolved in parallel with the Human Genome Project and the field of human genetics, from biology to bioinformatics then GWAS and now genomics.

After exploring career options in medical school, Silicon Valley, and the NIH I subsequently earned a PhD in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology from UCSD. My doctoral dissertation involved characterizing the regulatory genetics of the adrenaline-synthesis gene PNMT, as well as more broadly studying the human adrenergic stress pathway. Seeking additional training in genomics and statistics, I spent a year working with Kelly Frazer at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, followed by a move to Weill Cornell Medical College in 2010.

As a postdoc, I developed a set of genomic analysis skills and tools that I applied to numerous projects, both locally and with international collaborators such as the 1000 Genomes Project, Weill Cornell Medical School in Qatar, and the University of Puerto Rico.

As an Instructor in the Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, I worked on the analysis of next generation sequencing data of genomes, exomes, transcriptomes, and epigenomes. In addition to research, I served as one of the Unit Leaders for the Genetics Unit of the first-year medical student Essential Principles of Medicine Course. This 3-week course was developed from scratch, and includes lectures by myself and other experts in genetics and genomics at Weill Cornell.

In my new appointment as Assistant Professor, I am tasked with developing biotechnology tools for precision medicine.