Why CMDB?

When I interviewed for the CMDB program virtually in 2021, it was immediately clear, even over Zoom, that there was a real sense of community, and the grad students were at the heart of it. After doing research in a hospital system where grad students were the minority, I wanted to join a program that prioritized graduate education and research. I also appreciated the idea of a mid-sized program where everyone knows each other and you do not get lost in the shuffle, but it is not so small that it feels restrictive. The impression that I got when I interviewed was accurate: CMDB is a collaborative, friendly program with a wide variety of research topics that you get to explore and deeply engage with during the four eight-week long rotations in the first year. Every PI’s door is always open to give advice, and all labs are more than willing to share reagents, ideas, and techniques. We also have amazing core facilities with staff who go above and beyond to help you select and use the equipment that you need. Beyond the department, I have found that the greater Hopkins community is filled with experts on just about any topic. I am currently collaborating with a professor of mechanical engineering, with whom I connected while he was a postdoc at Hopkins, to develop live-imaging analysis software for my experiments.

I also really value the many opportunities to mentor and teach, because CMDB is located on the Homewood undergraduate campus. I was fortunate to have an incredible PhD mentor as an undergrad, who heavily influenced my decision to go to graduate school. I would love to pay that forward and be a positive scientific mentor for someone else. I have already mentored several students in the lab and had the opportunity to TA both graduate and undergraduate courses. I hope that teaching and mentorship will be a part of my future career, so these opportunities, along with the teaching fellowships and training courses available at Hopkins, are a wonderful resource.

My Research 

My project examines how the expression of a transcription factor called Spineless (Ss) drives a binary fate decision in fly photoreceptors during retina development in Bob Johnstons Lab. ss is unusual because it is expressed in two distinct waves in developing fly eyes. In the first wave, ss RNA is transcribed in all cells, but no protein is produced. In the second wave, only a subset of cells reactivate ss and make Ss protein, which ultimately determines the type of photoreceptor that they will become.

I am studying whether the transcription level of ss in the early wave determines the binary fate decision made later during differentiation and how these varying transcription levels result from different regulatory inputs. My experiments primarily use live imaging of transcription with the MS2-MCP system in explanted developing eyes. We inserted MS2 stem loops into the ss gene, and MCP fluorescent proteins localize to these stem loops as ss is transcribed, enabling us to visualize the amount of RNA being produced.

Before graduate school, I studied glia development in the peripheral nervous system and regulation of chromatin structure during development. Now, I am exploring gene regulation during development from a new perspective that integrates Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology with Biophysics. The strong foundation that I gained from our first-year coursework in each of these areas has been incredibly helpful. Microscopy has always been my favorite technique, and this project has challenged me to explore various types of microscopy and analysis with support from the Integrated Imaging Center (IIC) at Hopkins, collaborators, and other PI’s in the department. My PI is also supportive and offers excellent advice. If he does not have the answer or if we need to use a technique outside our expertise, he connects me with others who can help. Above all, I am lucky to work with amazing people in the Johnston Lab. Graduate school can be tough but coming to work with your friends every day makes those challenging moments much easier to manage.