The goals of my lab are to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms driving biological resilience, which is the ability of animals to recover from stresses such as injury or environmental threats like ionizing radiation. Stem cells offer a potentially powerful line of defense against these insults through their ability to restore tissues, yet stem cells themselves are susceptible to deterioration from overuse or age, as a result of recurring cell divisions. To understand how stem cells can resist these types of insults, my lab studies one of the most resilient animals known, freshwater planarians. These invertebrates can rebound from almost any kind of stress or amputation. We use genetic tools such as next-generation sequencing and RNA interference combined with cell biological and behavioral analysis to dissect how cells coordinate their activity to regenerate individual organs.

• PhD, University of California, San Francisco, 2005
• BA, Wesleyan University, 1996