Growing up in the country, I found myself outdoors for extended periods of time. My sisters and I used to play in the creek that ran next to our house, and I remember being told not to drink the water because there were little organisms living in there. I went to the encyclopedia to learn more, but I really wanted to see them for myself (unfortunately this was pre-internet). I asked my parents for a microscope, but got it at Christmas when the creek was frozen, so we followed the instruction booklet and looked at cheek cells and strands of hair. The underlying cellular structure of the body became my new obsession. I spent many hours looking through my mom's medical texts, learning about the tissues of the body, and the way the body was organized into organs made up of cells, which in turn, had their own organs, or organelles. This fascination with biology carried through into high school - I distinctly remember learning the central dogma of molecular biology: the DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA, which is translated into proteins, which carry out all sorts of functions in the cell. How mutations in genes could both lead to disease and genetic variability piqued my curiosity.
Through my high school science teachers, I ended up working as an intern in the cancer research laboratory of Dr. David Blask at the local hospital. The lab milieu was new and very exciting to me. Working with Robert Dauchy, I learned about the interactions and crosstalk between proteins 
involved in cancer signalling. I engaged in a project with them that investigated the effects of particular fatty acids in the diet on tumor growth in rats. They found that diets high in linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid enhanced tumor progression, and this growth stimulation could be suppressed by the circadian hormone, melatonin. Their work has contributed to the notion that disrupting circadian rhythms can act as a carcinogen. I was very lucky to participate in such exciting research, and it instilled in me a passion for science.
In college, I became enamored of genetics through my coursework, and by working in laboratories. During this time I worked in a hardcore yeast genetics laboratory - that of Dr. Thomas Fox in the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department at Cornell. Here I learned about the powerful genetics of budding yeast as a model organism for studying cellular processes that are common to all eukaryotes. During the summer, I was also an intern at the National Institutes of Health in Dr. Jeffrey Cohen's lab, studying the genetics of Herpes Simplex Virus infection. It was an exciting prospect to be studying a question that is so closely tied with human health.
My Ph.D. work has dealt with the mechanisms by which cells deal with damaged chromosomes. DNA damage can result from many causes - from radiation, UV light from the sun, carcinogens in the environment, and even from sources within the cell, such as reactive oxygen species made by respiration, and mistakes made by the cell's own replication machinery. If not repaired, DNA damage can lead to all sorts of problems, such as cell growth arrest, mutations and eventually cancer. To deal with this potentially harmful damage, the cell has multiple DNA repair pathways that can be used to heal the lesion. My work deals with how the proper repair pathway is chosen, since improperly repaired DNA is also potentially harmful.
I am currently finishing my work in my Ph.D. lab at Columbia, but will shortly be taking my DNA repair knowledge to a lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. There I will be working in the National Cancer Institute with Dr. Tom Misteli, whose work has helped elucidate the organization and dynamics of the mammalian cell nucleus. Melding his lab's expertise in nuclear structure with my studies in DNA repair is a very exciting prospect for me, and I look forward to starting this new journey.
Apart from science, there's a few things I love to do. Knitting is a huge obsession of mine. Being able to make an infinite number of beautiful fabrics and accessories from a very simple raw material is extremely satisfying. It is a different satisfaction from that I get with science. In science, you explore the world, produce knowledge and introduce new ideas, but rarely produce anything tangible. With knitting, you have an outcome: 'today I made a pair of mittens.' That is very satisfying. When I can incorporate my scientific ideas into my knitted items, I get very excited, because I feel like I am creating usable science art.
Cycling is another passion of mine. Besides just commuting to work, I use it to explore the city in which I live. I have seen parts of New York City that I never would have if I had not been on a bicycle. On a bicycle, I can explore different pathways and experience my environment in a thorough and tactile manner. I also just like the idea of getting around just using my own ATP. A desire for self-sufficience and a punk attitude tend to govern my style.
