Hi. I love molecules and I love living things (in that order), so I usually describe myself as a chemical biologist. Our lab operates at the intersection of chemistry and biology. Often, we're interested in particular molecules, proteins, that are an important cellular component, along with DNA and lipids and sugars. Usually, we're interested in an active type of protein called an enzyme (some people describe them as the tiny molecular machines inside cells). We make enzymes in the lab (well, we normally persuade bacteria to do it for us). Sometimes, we make our own smaller molecules and mix them with enzymes, to try to measure how the enzyme's activity is affected. Other times, we're literally trying to get an atomic-level three-dimensional picture of how the small molecules interact with their much bigger enzyme partners. Usually, the way we do that is by trying to get the small molecule and enzyme to crystallize together, so that we can shoot X-rays through the crystal (at a facility called a synchrotron, at one of our national labs). The diffraction pattern can then be used to figure out the atomic structure.

I was a Chemistry major in college (Reed College), but I couldn't decide quite whether I should pursue further study in biology or chemistry. So, I taught high school science for a while (in Ghana 🇬🇭 with the Peace Corps), then I worked for a few years at a cancer research laboratory (in Dayton, OH) as a lab tech, then I worked for a while in a chemistry lab at UC Berkeley (with Rich Mathies). Of course, I still couldn't decide what I wanted to do, so I applied to graduate programs in both biology and chemistry. I ended up at Caltech, where I did my PhD with a chemist (Dennis Dougherty) and a biologist (Henry Lester). After that, I needed (♡) to move to Boston, where I did an NIH post-doctoral fellowship in a crystallography lab (with Dagmar Ringe and Greg Petsko). After that, I needed (♡) to move to Baltimore, where I did another post-doctoral fellowship in a crystallography lab (Scott Bailey), with the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. I started at F&M in the fall of 2013.