About me

I am an immunologist by training, but my work experience spans immunology, biochemistry, vaccine development, and research on emerging biological risks. I care a lot about making the world safer from pathogens and other biological risks.

I live in Pacifica, California, just south of San Francisco. Below is an overview of my research projects past and present, in reverse chronological order.

Mirror bacteria & MBDF

I currently work at the Mirror Biology Dialogues Fund as a Senior Scientist, where I research the feasibility, risks, and governance options for mirror bacteria: hypothetical synthetic organisms constructed from mirror-image biomolecules that pose severe environmental and immunological risks. I helped co-author the 2024 Technical Report on Mirror Bacteria. My work examines how emerging technologies may accelerate key capabilities in this space, and I regularly talk with scientists, biosecurity experts, and policymakers to assess the risks and potential mitigation strategies. I recently presented a Build-A-Cell seminar on the topic, which you can view below. I spoke too quickly.

Mirrors and stuff. One Vanderbilt building, NYC.

Vaccines & global health

Before MBDF, I worked at 1Day Sooner, where I worked to accelerate the rollout of the (then) newly approved R21 malaria vaccine in Africa, primarily by conducting cost-efficacy analyses and regulatory advocacy. Before that, I worked at Alvea, a small biotech startup where I helped design and test three vaccine candidates in preclinical trials: a shelf-stable DNA vaccine against Omicron BA.2, an 18-valent inhalable SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and a 25-valent pan-influenza A vaccine. I was also a 2022 Emerging Leader in Biosecurity Initiative Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and have co-authored a biosecurity report with the Council on Strategic Risks. I've written about vaccine science for Asimov Press.

I do love vaccines.

Immunology research

I completed my Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Chicago in the lab of Dr. Erin Adams. My dissertation examined the molecular basis of self-antigen recognition by regulatory T cells, an anti-inflammatory class of immune cell. My project's goal was to understand how the immune system distinguishes self from non-self in ways that govern cancer immunity and autoimmune disease. I applied protein engineering, next-generation sequencing, and X-ray crystallography techniques to answer fundamental questions in T cell biology.

Reading Room, Harper Memorial Library, University of Chicago

Undergraduate research

During my undergraduate studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I worked in the lab of Dr. David Valentine for three years. I studied ocean bacteria that consume hydrocarbons (oils) in natural oil seeps off the coast of California. I got to live on the RV Atlantis for three weeks as we traveled off the coast of California, collecting water and soil samples. The Valentine Lab's work was crucial in understanding the natural bacterial response after oil spills - oil-consuming bacteria exist at steady state, but will expand in population in response to a spill.

Me and the other undergrads on the RV Atlantis, 2013.