I am a biological engineer researching emergent collective behavior in epithelial cells. I want to understand how groups of cells coordinate with their neighbors to inform multicellular structure and function. My scientific work integrates my experience in cell and tissue engineering, mechanobiology, and cell biology, to explore how biological information at the single-cell level combines with local physical forces to drive collective cellular migration in development, regeneration, and disease.
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I received my S.B. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from MIT.
I was exposed through undergraduate research opportunities to synthetic biology and tissue engineering, and became hooked on the idea that we can use engineering tools to ask biological questions through building and interrogating model systems. I went on to receive my Ph.D. from Brown University in Biomedical Engineering. As a graduate student in the lab of Prof. Diane Hoffman-Kim, I used soft lithography techniques to physically guide the migration and growth of neurons and glial cells, providing insight into strategies for promoting nerve tissue regrowth. |
I am currently a Research Scientist working with Professors Jin-Ah Park and Jeffrey Fredberg, in the the Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I am supported by the Parker B. Francis Foundation Fellowship for my work in understanding the role of cellular jamming in epithelial migration repair.
When I’m not looking at cells under the microscope, running western blots, or analyzing gigabytes of timelapse movies, you can find me in the garden, on the couch with a book, or chilling with my cat. (Or, let’s be honest, playing video games or watching TV).
