Education
B.S. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2009)
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014)

Research Summary
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow, co-advised by Professors David Mooney and David Scadden. I completed my doctoral training in Chemical Engineering at MIT under the mentorship of Professor Paula Hammond. I have interdisciplinary research interests in biomedicine that encompass the use of synthetic and natural biomaterials to direct cellular behavior for regenerative medicine and overcoming immunological disorders. 

My postdoctoral research has focused on methods to confer broad and antigen-specific immunity for patients undergoing blood stem cell transplants. While they are effective and the only known cure for a variety of blood-cancers and viral infections, blood (or hematopoietic) stem cell transplantation is a high-risk procedure. Immunodeficiency, or the inability of the patient to mount an appropriate immune response against pathogens after HSCT remains one of the most serious impediments to its effective implementation. I am interested in using synthetic and natural biomaterials to drive the reconstitution of the adaptive immune system from progenitor blood stem cells after HSCT.