Experience

Nikon Instruments

• United States
• Medical Equipment Manufacturing
• 200 - 300 Employee

• Advanced Biosystems Manager

  • Jan 2022 - Present

• Advanced Biosystems Specialist

  • Feb 2017 - Jan 2022

• Advanced Imaging Specialist

  • Nov 2015 - Feb 2017



UCLA

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Graduate Student Researcher

  • 2008 - Nov 2015

  Ph.D. candidate, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program Laboratory of S. Thomas Carmichael Doctoral Thesis: Angiocrine signaling regulation of stroke-induced neurogenesis and neurovascular remodeling Work from our lab and others has shown that schemic stroke stimulates the proliferation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and their migration as doublecortin-positive neuroblasts to sites of ischemic damage in the brain. Using a mouse… Show more Ph.D. candidate, Neuroscience Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program Laboratory of S. Thomas Carmichael Doctoral Thesis: Angiocrine signaling regulation of stroke-induced neurogenesis and neurovascular remodeling Work from our lab and others has shown that schemic stroke stimulates the proliferation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and their migration as doublecortin-positive neuroblasts to sites of ischemic damage in the brain. Using a mouse model of distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), we have shown that SVZ-derived neuroblasts preferentially migrate to angiogenic vasculature in peri-infarct cortex (PI ctx) and form a novel neurovascular niche adjacent to the stroke core. Angiogenesis causally regulates neurogenesis within this niche, but the specific angiogenic blood vessel-derived (angiocrine) factors that mediate neuroblast recruitment, survival, and differentiation have not been well described. My thesis work has developed a set of candidate vessel-neuroblast signaling interactions through cell-specific whole genome expression profiling at 7d after stroke, the peak of post-stroke angiogenesis and neurogenesis. We are exploring the mechanistic role of these angiocrine signaling interactions through both in vitro studies with adult mouse SVZ-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and in vivo studies using both non-specific and blood vessel-specific gain and loss of function manipulations for individual angiocrine ligands. These studies provide insight into endogenous signaling systems that regulate post-stroke neurogenesis, a process with demonstrated impact on functional recovery. Moreover, my work developed several novel experimental approaches in the lab, including: - Isolation of neural progenitors from the adult mouse brain via flow cytometry (FACS) - MicroRNA lentiviral vectors with cell-specific promoters for vascular knockdown of mRNA targets - High content confocal imaging and analysis paradigms

• Graduate Teaching Assistant

  • Jan 2013 - Mar 2013

  UCLA Neuroscience M101B: From Molecules to Mind - Molecular and Developmental Neuroscience Served as a member of a teaching assistant team for a course of 150 undergraduate students. Self-taught two individual course sections of 25 students each and worked with three faculty members to develop course and exam content.

• Undergraduate Research Fellow

  • 2005 - 2008

  Initial work with Drs. Tatyana Gurlo and Peter Butler at the Hillblom Islet Research Center sought to understand the mechanisms subserving pancreatic beta cell apoptosis in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with a particular focus on the role of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) in beta cell dysfunction. Later, I developed a neuroscience honors thesis project in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Head (then at University of California Irvine) that sought to experimentally investigate the… Show more Initial work with Drs. Tatyana Gurlo and Peter Butler at the Hillblom Islet Research Center sought to understand the mechanisms subserving pancreatic beta cell apoptosis in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with a particular focus on the role of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) in beta cell dysfunction. Later, I developed a neuroscience honors thesis project in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Head (then at University of California Irvine) that sought to experimentally investigate the epidemiological link between islet and cerebral amyloid in clinical patients using rodent models of T2DM. This work identified that a shift in brain alpha-secretase activity to yield non-amyloidogenic amyloid-beta monomer products may represent an acute compensatory mechanism that occurs during the early phase of T2DM. This thesis work was funded by several competitive undergraduate fellowships from UCLA.



Mayo Clinic

• United States
• Hospitals and Health Care
• 700 & Above Employee

• Student Fellow

  • 2002 - 2003

  Worked with Dr. Philip Greipp in the Division of Hematology and Cell Kinetics to investigate Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that is characterized by the proliferation of monoclonal plasma cells primarily in the bone marrow. Previous studies had shown that the plasma cell labeling index (PCLI), a measure of plasma cells that are in S phase of the cell cycle, provided a good estimate for the proliferative capacity of malignant clonal plasma cells in bone marrow. The proliferative rate of malignant… Show more Worked with Dr. Philip Greipp in the Division of Hematology and Cell Kinetics to investigate Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that is characterized by the proliferation of monoclonal plasma cells primarily in the bone marrow. Previous studies had shown that the plasma cell labeling index (PCLI), a measure of plasma cells that are in S phase of the cell cycle, provided a good estimate for the proliferative capacity of malignant clonal plasma cells in bone marrow. The proliferative rate of malignant plasma cells is a critical determinant of myeloma biology, and therefore the PCLI method was a relatively useful prognostic tool for multiple myeloma. Building on data that demonstrated clonal plasma cells in the peripheral blood of patients with multiple myeloma (in addition to the bone marrow), my work adapted the PCLI method for use in the peripheral blood and compared the proliferation kinetics of plasma cells in the circulation to those in the bone marrow for a cohort of 117 clinical patients. Show less Worked with Dr. Philip Greipp in the Division of Hematology and Cell Kinetics to investigate Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that is characterized by the proliferation of monoclonal plasma cells primarily in the bone marrow. Previous studies had shown that the plasma cell labeling index (PCLI), a measure of plasma cells that are in S phase of the cell cycle, provided a good estimate for the proliferative capacity of malignant clonal plasma cells in bone marrow. The proliferative rate of malignant… Show more Worked with Dr. Philip Greipp in the Division of Hematology and Cell Kinetics to investigate Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that is characterized by the proliferation of monoclonal plasma cells primarily in the bone marrow. Previous studies had shown that the plasma cell labeling index (PCLI), a measure of plasma cells that are in S phase of the cell cycle, provided a good estimate for the proliferative capacity of malignant clonal plasma cells in bone marrow. The proliferative rate of malignant plasma cells is a critical determinant of myeloma biology, and therefore the PCLI method was a relatively useful prognostic tool for multiple myeloma. Building on data that demonstrated clonal plasma cells in the peripheral blood of patients with multiple myeloma (in addition to the bone marrow), my work adapted the PCLI method for use in the peripheral blood and compared the proliferation kinetics of plasma cells in the circulation to those in the bone marrow for a cohort of 117 clinical patients. Show less