About
I am a biologist and computational scientist focused on understanding how genes and proteins shape plant biology, with a particular interest in plant interaction with other organisms. My work sits at the intersection of plant genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. I use both experimental insight and modern computational, machine learning, and AI approaches to investigate how molecular systems function and evolve.
During my doctoral training at UC San Diego, I studied plant immune signaling and metabolism, including the characterization of a maize anti-herbivory receptor, peptide hormone-receptor interactions, and specialized metabolic pathways. I also investigated how maize specialized metabolites influence interactions belowground, including their role in shaping the root microbiome. This work developed my expertise in receptor biology, biochemical pathways, and the genetic diversity underlying plant defenses.
My current post-doctoral research at USDA centers on computational biology methods for understanding protein function at scale. I work with protein language models, predicted protein structures, and molecular interaction modeling to improve functional annotation and biological inference. My interests include predicting short functional motifs, post-translation modifications, protein–protein interactions, and protein–ligand interactions, as well as building tools that make these predictions accessible and useful for plant and agricultural research communities.
PlantApp
I am the developer of PlantApp, a comprehensive platform for plant genomics and transcriptomics data. PlantApp integrates custom gene annotations, orthology relationships, protein domains, genomic context, and large-scale uniformly processed RNA-seq data into a single interactive interface. PlantApp is designed to lower the barrier between raw genomics data and biological insight, enabling rapid hypothesis generation directly in the browser. You can explore the public site at plantapp.org.
For publications, CV, and lab history, use Research in the menu. More about PlantApp is on the PlantApp page in the menu above.
