Experience

Mazen Animal Health - Oral Vaccines
• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Research Scientist, Molecular Biologist

  • Aug 2023 - Present


Locus Biosciences, Inc.

• United States
• Biotechnology
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Scientist I - R&D Product Delivery

  • May 2022 - Aug 2023

  At Locus Biosciences, a company focused on the development of precision antimicrobial therapies, I work within the research and development department to design, construct, and characterize antimicrobial payloads and genetically engineered bacteriophages. Through assignments on both the lead asset and other projects, I employed technologies such as Gibson Assembly, Golden Gate, and CRISPR/Cas in cloning and engineering; conducted and analyzed next-generation sequencing results; and characterized phages and payloads through reporter-based assays, ELISA, and other measures of efficacy such as CFU reductions. As part of this work, I have developed and characterized the efficacy of over 80 antimicrobial payloads across panels of laboratory strains, clinical isolates, and multi-drug resistant E. coli and S. Aureus. In addition to independent projects, I worked as part of small teams to meet tight deadlines and have coordinated across different departments to ensure efficient handoff of samples. Show less



University of Florida

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Postdoctoral Associate

  • Jan 2021 - Apr 2022

  As part of a large, multi-institutional collaboration formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I've worked on studying the persistence and inactivation of coronaviruses. Being the sole senior-level researcher in the lab besides my PI, I’ve been the primary individual responsible for moving research projects forward; developing and optimizing more than 20 protocols for cell culture and virology; maintaining four cell lines including mouse, human, and rhesus macaque cells; managing a BSL2 lab; as well as supervising and training a team of 4 undergraduate assistants. The result of my efforts has been to establish capacity for coronavirus propagation and quantification in a previously norovirus-focused lab. Some of the protocols I've worked on developing have also been published as a universal resource. Show less

• Graduate Research Assistant

  • Aug 2016 - Dec 2020

  Worked on a unique project employing synthetic biology principles to answer the following: can we create biologically disruptive molecules using nothing more than random DNA? Designed research plans to screen random peptide expressing Arabidopsis thaliana plants under various conditions and characterized one of these abnormal lines as a proof-of-concept regarding feasibility of this system. Routinely performed PCR, quantitative PCR (qPCR), and agarose gel electrophoresis to amplify and analyze DNA; cultured the bacteria Escherichia coli and Agrobacterium tumefaciens for molecular cloning, plasmid amplification, and transformation; and generated over 600 independent transgenic lines using of A. thaliana spanning nearly 20,000 plants for phenotyping. I have presented the results of my work through speaking invitations at worldwide virtual ASPB Plant Biology 2020 and inaugural ASPB Plant Synthetic Biology 2019 conferences as well as through publication in academic journals. Additionally, served as primary supervisor to four undergraduate researchers conducting independent research projects. Show less

• PhD Rotation Student

  • Aug 2016 - Mar 2017

  Rotated across three laboratories for 10-week research experiences resulting in training with Arabidopsis thaliana cultivation; culturing Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast); toxicology; calcium, auxin, and cytokinin biosensors; and fluorescent microscopy. The specific projects I worked on included fluorescent microscopy of Arabidopsis thaliana plants after stimulation to different abiotic conditions to generate time lapse video of calcium, auxin, & cytokinin responses; collaborating to identify IC20 for rapamycin, phleomycin, and oligomycin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae; and developing an SOP to screen over 1000 random peptide expressing Arabidopsis thaliana plants for resistance to heat shock. I presented the results of each research experience in the Genetics and Genomics seminar course and during internal laboratory meetings. Show less



Loyola University Chicago

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Biology Summer Fellow/Mulcahy Fellow

  • May 2015 - May 2016

  Recipient of two fellowships from Loyola University to fund an undergraduate research project. Utilizing quantitative PCR and limited DNA sequence coverage of Trifolium repens (white clover), worked with other lab members to characterize novel families of retrotransposons genome wide. Assisted in restriction enzyme cloning to amplify retrotransposon fragments for Sanger sequencing and responsible for conducting qPCR assays to calculate copy numbers. The result of this work lead to co-authorship on a report published in an academic journal and a poster presentation in the annual Loyola Undergraduate Research Symposium. Show less



University of Illinois at Chicago

• United States
• Higher Education
• 1 - 100 Employee

• MOST Summer Intern

  • May 2014 - Aug 2014

  Received an internship to help study whether a specific mutation in the FabI gene of Staphylococcus aureus was involved in resistance to the antimicrobial compound Triclosan. Designed primers for PCR directed mutagenesis to induce the mutation of interest in the wild-type FabI gene, cloned both mutant and wild-type genes into plasmids, and transformed E. coli cells for expression. Afterwards, purified the expressed proteins of interest via nickel column chromatography and ran SDS-PAGE gels to confirm protein size. The results of this internship were generation of protein stocks for lab use in downstream binding experiments. Show less