I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire working with Dr. Ambrose Cheung.
I received my B.A in Biochemistry, Molecular & Cell Biology (a now retired degree) in 1995 from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. After graduation, I studied the insulin-stimulated translocation of GLUT4 containing vesicles as a technician in Dr. Michael Czech's lab at the University of Masssachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. I came to Dartmouth in 1999 where I now examine how the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus causes disease in people.
My research currently focuses on the genetic regulation that S. aureus uses to control its two alternate sigma factors, sigB and sigH, in order to successfully adapt to stressful and challenging environments, both in the host and out.