Departments of Molecular & Cellular Physiology, and Structural Biology Stanford University School of Medicine / Stanford, CA
Working in the lab of K. Christopher Garcia, I am studying the assembly and three-dimensional structures of Wnt-receptor complexes in order to understand Wnt signaling mechanisms, and facilitate development of new strategies to clinically target Wnt-associated diseases.
I have always enjoyed studying biological problems, particularly using structural and biochemical methods to understand underlying molecular mechanisms. I am most fascinated by fundamental and hard problems that require creativity, tenacity and dedication to solve. After having studied fundamental aspects of protein translocation, I now wish to examine receptor-ligand interactions with high relevance to human disease. Wnt signaling is important in many developmental and regenerative processes, and in a variety of human diseases, including many types of cancers. However, due to major technical difficulties, there is a complete lack of extracellular structural information about Wnt signaling activation and inhibition. We are using traditional and novel methodologies to obtain structural information that can ultimately facilitate the development of new strategies to therapeutically target Wnt signaling. Most of my spare time is spent running over the hills behind Stanford to train for a marathon, relax from hard work, and think about new ways to approach scientific problems.