Publications

Science

1. Temporally dynamic antagonism between transcription and chromatin compaction controls stochastic photoreceptor specification in flies I was a rotation student in Dr. Bob Johnston’s lab for this project. Normally when we think of cells differentiating into different cell types, we think of this change being primarily driven by differential protein or RNA expression. However, the question remains as to where these expresison changes come from. In this paper, my rotation mentor Dr. Luke Voortman, shows that expression of the gene spineless (ss), which determines photoreceptor fate choice in the fly eye, is controlled by the accessibility of the region containing the spineless gene to transcription factors. This is in turn controlled by a non-protein forming burst of transcription early in development. My role in this project was to long-read sequence some of the mutants used to test this model.
2. From worms to humans: Understanding intestinal lipid metabolism via model organisms Darby Kozan, a colleague and friend from Steve Farber’s lab, and I did a literature review on the various systems involved in lipid metabolism (absorbtion, trafficking, storage), and how these systems differ between common labratory animals including C. elegans, drosophila, zebrafish, chickens, and rodents. The overall goal of this review was to highlight the advantages of model organisms for this kind of research, with a special emphasis on non-mammalian systems which are often a better choice financially and ethically.
3. First-passage-time statistics of growing microbial populations carry an imprint of initial conditions This paper was a collaboration between myself and Simon Frasier Research Fellow Eric Jones. We grew E. coli and S. aureus from various very small innoculation sizes and measured the variance in the amount of time it took these innoculum to reach a certain density. We found that these two variables were related via a power-law. The encoding of the population history in the variation allows inferences about population growth at low-densities to be studied, which was previously most commonly done with expensive microscopy “mother” machines.

Creative Writing

1. Ser Ghostwriter This was my creative writing thesis from college. It combines the plot of George R. R. Martin’s the Hedge Knight with characters based on Romantic Poets and a magic system based on the quality of verse. I hope to get to work on a sequel soon(ish).

2. Dreams from Yesterday A collection of haikus of haikus that I wrote for poetry class in 2018 and 2020.