I started science doing genetics in Puerto Rico, where I joined Dr. Juan Carlos Martínez-Cruzado’s Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at UPR-Mayagüez. Those years grounded me in population genetics and community-anchored science. We built a DNA repository to map local polymorphisms and trained students in molecular methods and bioinformatics. That mix of field context and bench precision shaped how I still think about research and outreach.

After graduating I moved into immunology as a post-baccalaureate researcher at the University of Rochester. I worked on Xenopus models to understand T-cell biology, contributing to work on nonclassical MHC class I-dependent invariant T cells.

I stayed at Rochester for graduate studies in Microbiology and Immunology. In the Morrell lab I developed flow-cytometry workflows to isolate murine stem cells and studied how platelets bridge innate and adaptive immunity. In the Ritchlin lab I validated targets in preclinical psoriatic arthritis models specifically the g-protein DC-STAMP.

I later broadened into translational cell biology at NC State’s Plants for Human Health Institute, where I ran wound-healing and toxicity assays and wrote SOPs that stabilized day-to-day operations. That set me up for large, collaborative human-omics work at UNC Chapel Hill in the Linnstaedt Lab. I coordinated multiplexed projects across LC-MS proteomics and RNA-seq within trauma-recovery cohorts and coauthored studies linking acute biomarkers to brain structure and outcomes after injury. I also helped lead analyses on inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein in the acute post-trauma window.

I pivoted to chromatin biology by joining EpiCypher, where I supported high-efficiency chromatin mapping technology development and establishing their cell culture facility (EPIC). That translated into authorship on improved genomic mapping of chromatin-associated proteins and collaboration studies that connect histone-modifying enzymes to cancer.

Today, as a GMP cell-based assay analyst at BioAgilityx, I bring all of this together. I run and optimize regulated and non-regulated cell-based assays, and assist clients in developing and validating assays for their drug discovery programs.