Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Columbia University, New York, NY
I’m investigating how taste information is encoded at the first relay between taste receptor cells and the gustatory neurons which innervate them., As a third-generation San Diegan who went to the University of California, San Diego as an undergrad and The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla for graduate school, and who started a postdoc at Charles Zuker’s lab at UCSD, I thought I might have beaten the odds and would be able to complete my scientific training in my beloved native city. Although I had been open to the possibility of moving, I considered myself lucky to be able to live so close to friends and family while pursuing my scientific career at such highly regarded research institutes. So you can imagine my shock when Charles announced his intention to move the laboratory to Columbia University in New York City! It’s been a year since the move, and while I’m still a San Diegan at heart, New York has given me a fresh perspective on life and science.