Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor
Biology Department
San Francisco State University
CV Website LinkedIn BlueSky
I am an assistant professor in the Biology Department at my alma mater, San Francisco State University (SFSU). I’m a first-generation college graduate and started my research career supported by NIH-MARC in undergrad, as well as by NIH-RISE in my Master’s work under Dr. Megumi Fuse at SFSU. In the Fuse lab, I studied regenerative responses following x-ray irradiation using Manduca Sexta. I received my Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan in Dr. Peter Hitchcock’s lab, where I was awarded the Rackham Merit Scholarship, the Vision Training grant, and the Society for Neuroscience’s Neuroscience Scholar Program fellowship. My dissertation work defined a role for matrix metalloproteinase 9 and acute inflammation during injury-induced retinal regeneration in the adult zebrafish. I completed my postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in Dr. Anna Molofsky’s lab, where I was bestowed an NIH-IRACDA teaching fellowship and the MOSAIC NIH K99/R00 career award. In the Molofsky lab, I identified synapse-associated microglia in the developing zebrafish brain and investigated the lysosomal protease cathepsin B mediating efferocytosis. Throughout my career, I have been deeply committed to teaching and mentorship of trainees while investigating immune mechanisms of injury, regeneration, and development in the central nervous system.
Outside the lab, I like to cook, garden, travel, and spend time with my family and friends.
