Postdoctoral Scholar, Zhalnina Group, Northern Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA 02/2021-present
-Characterizing interactions between archaea, plants, and other N-cycling microbes to regulate nitrogen availability in soils and increase carbon capture, utilizing controlled laboratory ecosystems, biochemical assays, synthetic biology, metabolomics, and transcriptomics.
Researcher, Coleman-Derr Laboratory, USDA Plant Gene Expression Center, Albany, CA 05/2016-present
-Utilized metagenomic 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing and metatranscriptomics to identify the effects of agricultural soil management practices, heat stress, and host evolution on diversity and structure of root, rhizosphere, and soil microbial communities. Collected, identified and characterized microorganisms obtained from the plant and soil microbiome, cultured and utilized bacterial isolates. Computational experience using Unix command line, Python, bash.
Rotation Researcher, Blackman Laboratory, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA 02-05/2016
-With cloning and
in situ hybridization, constructed a probe to target a R3MYB factor involved in floral patterning in
Mimulus guttatus.
Rotation Researcher, Scheller Laboratory, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA 11/2015-02/2016
-Utilizing a promoter assay, RNA interference, CRISPR-CAS9 system, and an acetylene reduction assay, investigated the role of glycosyltransferase family 64 in the symbiosis between
Medicago truncatula, Glomus intraradices, and
Rhizobium leguminosarum.
Rotation Researcher, Coleman-Derr Laboratory, USDA Plant Gene Expression Center, Albany, CA 09-11/2015
-Utilizing metagenomic 16S rDNA tagging to identify diversity and structure of root, rhizosphere, and soil microbial communities in the crop
Lactuca sativa.
Rotation Researcher, Niyogi Laboratory, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA 06-09/2015
-Performed flanking sequence tag recovery of 46 insertional mutants of heterkont algae and potential biofuel source
Nannachloropsis oceanica, as screened for reduced high light stress resistance; utilized chromosomal walking via the SiteFinding PCR method.
-Characterized a putative vaucheriaxanthin N. oceanica mutant under high/low light conditions using chlorophyll fluorescence monitoring, HPLC, and western blot analysis.
-Utilized the reverse genetics approach of the CRISPR-Cas9 system to knock out four specific light harvesting complexes in N. oceanica. Designed target guide RNAs and transformed cultures with Cas9 and gRNA vectors.
