Professional Background
My interest in clinical medicine stems from a four-year medical program that I was a part of during high school, while my interest in research was discovered working in the lab after my undergraduate studies.
After graduating from Kansas Wesleyan University with my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry, I worked at a clinical research organization (PRA Health Sciences) for a year. I worked in PRA's flow cytometry department, where I learned how to produce, analyze and interpret flow data.
After realizing my passion for research, I began working at Kansas University Medical Center in Dr. Jill Hamilton-Reeves' lab. My time in Jill's lab was spent on two ongoing research projects involving prostate and bladder cancer patients. A shared aim of both studies is to determine how systemic MDSC levels are modulated in urological cancer patients by either preoperative weight loss in obese prostate cancer patients or the perioperative intake of an immunonutrition drink fortified with arginine in bladder cancer patients.
For my Ph.D., I am in the labs of Paige Geiger and Jill Morris. I plan to study the interactions between whole-body metabolism, microglia and Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, I will be exploring how the expression of heat shock proteins in response to heat therapy can modify metabolism and cognitive function.
In my free time, you will likely find me running, cycling or drinking coffee. I also enjoy taking my dogs to the dog park, playing board games and trying new restaurants.
Mentors: Paige Geiger, Ph.D., and Jill Morris, Ph.D., Cell Biology, and Physiology
