​As a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Frank Porreca, my research has focused on studying orofacial pain.  My approach has been to use pharmacology, genetics and animal behavior. My professional goal is to establish a research program that focuses on the exploration of neural, immune and hormonal mechanisms that promote migraine pathophysiology disproportionally in women and to uncover mechanisms that can be exploited for the development of new therapies that will help patients suffering from this debilitating and often chronic condition.
Migraine is a common, disabling neurological disorder with a strong genetic component that impairs patients’ quality of life.  Currently available therapies are effective in less than half of people with migraine. During my post-doctoral period, I have published several studies on preclinical assessment of migraine and other underlying headache and craniofacial pain disorders with a goal of understanding mechanisms that may promote pain. One of the problems with preclinical studies of migraine is that we cannot replicate the genetic basis that underlies the human condition. For this reason, surrogate strategies have to be used to model the disorder mechanistically. I recently developed an injury-free model of migraine-like pain by evaluating the effect of inhalational exposure of umbellulone, an agonist at TRPA1 receptors that are found on afferent fibers innervating the cranial meninges.  Umbellulone is the major volatile constituent of Umbellularia californica, commonly known as the “headache tree”.  Anecdotal reports reveal that people with underlying primary headache disorders can develop migraine and cluster headache when exposed to the tree, likely from this volatile substance.  Importantly, however, people without headache disorders do not experience headache attacks with umbellulone suggesting a requirement for pre-existing vulnerability.  I approached this by subjecting mice to repeated episodes of stress, another known trigger of migraine, to induce vulnerability. Repeated episodes of stress induced a “sensitized” state in mice so that a normally subthreshold stimulus, i.e., umbellulone, now produced pain behaviors that were reminiscent of migraine-like pain. I then used this model to study possible mechanisms relevant to migraine and to investigate new anti-migraine therapies.  Using this model, I found that activation of the protease activated receptor 2 (PAR2) receptor could produce migraine-like pain in vulnerable animals and that systemic administration of a monoclonal PAR2 antibody could be an effective preventive migraine therapy. I am currently working with a major pharmaceutical company in their efforts to perform a clinical trial in migraine patients with this antibody.
Currently, I have been using genetically modified mice, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing as well as opto- and chemogenetic methods to explore the peripheral and central neural circuits that can promote migraine pain and that might contribute to the sexually dimorphic nature of migraine. I have also focused on understanding of the neurobiology of the different phases of migraine, including especially the premonitory phase, which appears to be the critical period in which the pain attack begins and represents the transition point from the interictal phase.  Finding ways to extend the duration of the interictal phase would allow us to prevent the transition of episodic migraine to chronic migraine.
These experiences have led me to improve as a scholar and to become competitive for research funding.  I had the honor of receiving my first competitive extramural grant as a principal investigator in 2019. This year, I was delighted to receive an Honorable Mention from the review committee of University of Arizona Postdoctoral Affairs, as one of four finalists for the 2021 Outstanding Postdoctoral Scholar Award. The recognition and my collective experiences will increase my confidence in competing for future grants, aiding my transition to independent status as my career progresses.  My goal is to pursue studies of high significance that will be impactful in helping the overall efforts of the headache research community to improve therapy for patients with migraine, post-traumatic headache and other craniofacial pain disorders.As a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Frank Porreca, my research has focused on studying orofacial pain.  My approach has been to use pharmacology, genetics and animal behavior. My professional goal is to establish a research program that focuses on the exploration of neural, immune and hormonal mechanisms that promote migraine pathophysiology disproportionally in women and to uncover mechanisms that can be exploited for the development of new therapies that will help patients suffering from this debilitating and often chronic condition.
Migraine is a common, disabling neurological disorder with a strong genetic component that impairs patients’ quality of life.  Currently available therapies are effective in less than half of people with migraine. During my post-doctoral period, I have published several studies on preclinical assessment of migraine and other underlying headache and craniofacial pain disorders with a goal of understanding mechanisms that may promote pain. One of the problems with preclinical studies of migraine is that we cannot replicate the genetic basis that underlies the human condition. For this reason, surrogate strategies have to be used to model the disorder mechanistically. I recently developed an injury-free model of migraine-like pain by evaluating the effect of inhalational exposure of umbellulone, an agonist at TRPA1 receptors that are found on afferent fibers innervating the cranial meninges.  Umbellulone is the major volatile constituent of Umbellularia californica, commonly known as the “headache tree”.  Anecdotal reports reveal that people with underlying primary headache disorders can develop migraine and cluster headache when exposed to the tree, likely from this volatile substance.  Importantly, however, people without headache disorders do not experience headache attacks with umbellulone suggesting a requirement for pre-existing vulnerability.  I approached this by subjecting mice to repeated episodes of stress, another known trigger of migraine, to induce vulnerability. Repeated episodes of stress induced a “sensitized” state in mice so that a normally subthreshold stimulus, i.e., umbellulone, now produced pain behaviors that were reminiscent of migraine-like pain. I then used this model to study possible mechanisms relevant to migraine and to investigate new anti-migraine therapies.  Using this model, I found that activation of the protease activated receptor 2 (PAR2) receptor could produce migraine-like pain in vulnerable animals and that systemic administration of a monoclonal PAR2 antibody could be an effective preventive migraine therapy. I am currently working with a major pharmaceutical company in their efforts to perform a clinical trial in migraine patients with this antibody.
Currently, I have been using genetically modified mice, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing as well as opto- and chemogenetic methods to explore the peripheral and central neural circuits that can promote migraine pain and that might contribute to the sexually dimorphic nature of migraine. I have also focused on understanding of the neurobiology of the different phases of migraine, including especially the premonitory phase, which appears to be the critical period in which the pain attack begins and represents the transition point from the interictal phase.  Finding ways to extend the duration of the interictal phase would allow us to prevent the transition of episodic migraine to chronic migraine.
These experiences have led me to improve as a scholar and to become competitive for research funding.  I had the honor of receiving my first competitive extramural grant as a principal investigator in 2019. This year, I was delighted to receive an Honorable Mention from the review committee of University of Arizona Postdoctoral Affairs, as one of four finalists for the 2021 Outstanding Postdoctoral Scholar Award. The recognition and my collective experiences will increase my confidence in competing for future grants, aiding my transition to independent status as my career progresses.  My goal is to pursue studies of high significance that will be impactful in helping the overall efforts of the headache research community to improve therapy for patients with migraine, post-traumatic headache and other craniofacial pain disorders.

I have been fascinated since I was an undergraduate by the human immune system, which in its elegance is both a fundamental and complicated system in our body. The system distinguishes the components of foreign pathogens or viruses from our self components and keeps up the pathogen surveillance. If pathogens or viruses invade our body, the immune system mobilizes immune cells and clears these invaders. The invader's information is relayed from cell to cell and is memorized in cells to respond quickly during a future attack, just like human society. But sometimes, this elaborate system mischaracterizes our self components as pieces of hostile foreigners and starts to attack our body. This abnormal condition is called 'autoimmunity'. The trigger of autoimmunity has not been clear despite big efforts by the researchers. 'Why our immune system attacks ourself? What happens in the immune system during an autoimmune disease?’. My journey into immune research is a quest to answer these simple yet profound questions.
 
I have learned immunology under the mentoring of Dr. Takeshi Watanabe and obtained my Ph.D. from Kyoto University in Japan. In my Ph.D. work, I focused on a type of T cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which is one of the autoimmune diseases, and elucidated how T cells contribute to continuous inflammation at the local site in the patients by investigating RA patients’ samples. Through my Ph.D. work, the more I knew about a piece of the immune system, the more I was engrossed in immunology. I gradually desired to apply my knowledge and skills to the treatment of patients.

This passion drove me to work on the five modules CAR (5MCAR) project led by Dr. Michael S. Kuhns (University of Arizona, AZ) and Dr. Thomas Serwold (Joslin Diabetes Center, MA). The 5MCAR technology is based on the chimeric receptor (CAR) technology and aims to target pathogenic T cells. T cells expressing 5MCAR can eliminate only specific T cells via the receptor. We applied 5MCAR technology for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes (T1D), which is an autoimmune disease and is caused by pathogenic autoimmune T cells. Our data showed that 5MCAR expressing T cells eliminated only pathogenic T cells in T1D mouse models and prevented the onset of T1D in the mice. These results indicate that the 5MCAR technology has the potential for the treatment of not only T1D but also diseases caused by pathogenic T cells. We are now trying to apply the 5MCAR technology for the treatment of T-Lymphoma.
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I have had a fulfilling research life at the University of Arizona under the mentorship of Drs. Kuhns and Michael Worobey, support from the university, especially the BIO5 Fellowship, and by Arizona's incredible culture. My journey into immune research is in its prologue. There is a long and rocky road ahead to answer my research questions and apply our technology to clinical studies. However, I am going to continue this scientific quest to impart my knowledge and skills to the patients diagnosed with autoimmune diseases.

am I am an archaeologist and anthropologist, studying the complex and dynamic relationship between humans and their environments. I focus on the settlement of the Americas in modern day Alaska and in the Northwestern Plains.

In Alaska, I am building upon my doctoral work in researching archaeological sites that date to the end of the Ice Age and are among the oldest in North America. I focus on the study of animal bones both visually (zooarchaeology) and chemically (isotope analysis) to understand the changing environments that hunter-gatherers experienced and how they interacted with other species. In this endeavor, I work closely with University of Alaska geoarchaeologist and University of Arizona alumnus Dr. Joshua Reuther.
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In the Blackfoot Early Origins Project, Dr. Nieves Zedeño and I are working with tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Montana and Alberta to understand how the Blackfoot and their ancestors have interacted with their landscape for thousands of years. We train tribal members in field methods, allowing them to pursue rewarding careers with cultural resource management companies. Several University of Arizona graduate students also receive training and develop their own research programs as part of the project. We translate much of our research into educational material to be used by Blackfoot educators, including interactive maps of the Blackfoot ancestral territory and its archaeological record.

Symbiosis, or the co-existence of organisms, is a fundamental factor in maintaining the structure of the ecosystem, as well as in the development and evolution of species. Its importance has been increasingly recognized in various aspects of biological research and changed our perspectives on many topics. Instead of focusing solely on individual species, more and more studies are taking into consideration the influences from symbionts when investigating certain behavior of an animal, the evolution of specific traits, or structural changes in a population.

A unique case of symbiosis is the mutualistic relationship between the spotted salamander Ambystoma maculatum embryos and the green alga Oophila amblystomatis. The algae appear inside the salamander eggs during development and become so abundant that the entire egg clutch turns green (see attached picture). Recent discoveries revealed algal presence inside the embryonic cells. Such intracellular symbiosis has never been reported between animal and algal cells. It was also found that the embryo would turn down its immune defense to allow the presence of the algae. Does the embryo tolerate these green symbionts to obtain nutrients? Or maybe the algae protect the embryo from harmful bacteria? Early experiments showed that without algae, the survival/hatching rate of embryos dropped significantly. Further studies suggested that the algae may provide extra oxygen for the embryo to survive stressful conditions. However, to date, there is no direct evidence of material exchange between the algae and the embryo. Moreover, little is known about the influence of algae on the bacterial community inside salamander eggs, which plays a critical role in embryo survival and immune system development.

My research goal is to address these questions using two approaches: 1) track the fate of essential biomolecules such as sugars and amino acids that are produced by the algae, and 2) investigate the impact of algal symbiont on the bacterial community structure. For approach 1, I am currently working in Dr. Solange Duhamel’s laboratory at the University of Arizona to establish an Oophila laboratory culture labelled with stable isotopes (13C, 15N). For this approach, I will be working with collaborator Dr. John Burns at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences to prepare salamander samples that will be injected with 13C and/or 15N labeled Oophila. Further, I will collaborate with scientists at Stony Brook University and Arizona State University to visualize the isotopes in algae-inhabited salamander cells using nano-Raman molecular imaging and nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS), respectively. For approach 2,  I will visit Dr. Ryan Kerney’s laboratory at Gettysburg College and conduct a series of experiments in his laboratory to compare bacterial abundance and taxonomic diversity in eggs that harbor algae with eggs that do not have algae. With combined expertise of three collaborating laboratories and state-of-the-art technologies, we are expecting to answer some lingering questions and provide new insights in understanding the alga-salamander symbiosis.
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My interest in developmental and evolutionary biology grew during my PhD study while I was working on a group of microscopic invertebrates called rotifers. Specifically, I was interested in the ultrastructure and evolution of their extracorporeal sheath (a defensive structure secreted by some species of Superorder Gnesiotrocha). Fascinated by the intricate yet diverse design of nature, I decided to delve further into the field of development and evolution. Here at University of Arizona, my journey entered a new chapter. Along with new opportunities came great challenges and responsibilities. However, with the mentorship of Dr. Duhamel and the support from the university, especially the BIO5 Fellowship, I have been able to face those challenges and strengthen my skills for my future career. 

​Viruses are the most abundant biological entity on Earth and infect all domains of life. They have been shown to be a driving force of several important processes in many ecosystems, such as nutrient cycling and bacterial diversity modulation in the oceans. Metagenomic approaches have recently enabled an unprecedented understanding of the viral diversity and the interactions between micro-organisms in many ecosystems.
 
I became fascinated by the role and diversity of viruses in ecosystems while working as a master’s student in Dr. Wilhelm’s lab at the university of Tennessee. So, when I joined Dr. Hurwitz lab as a postdoctoral fellow, I was excited to work on developing bioinformatics tools and methods for the identification of novel viral sequences from environmental metagenomes. My current work aims to improve current computational methods by combining cutting-edge approaches, such as machine learning and natural language processing techniques with more traditional bioinformatics algorithms. One of the hurdles that currently impairs the study of viruses in their ecosystems is the difficulty to recover full-length virus genome sequences from natural populations. Recently, the new single-molecule long-read sequencing technologies (such as Oxford nanopore) has provided an unprecedented opportunity to recover entire viral genomes from a single viral particle. With that in mind, I was really excited by the opportunity the Postdoctoral Research Training Grant (PRTG) provides for postdocs to acquire new skills. I am extremely grateful of the PRTG to support my training in sample preparation and sequencing of viral genomes using nanopore technology, that I hope to complete this fall under the supervision of experts in this novel technique.
 
While much of my research focuses on new computational approaches to unravel the role and interplay of viruses and microbes in their environment, I am also passionate about the development of tools and methods to help researchers share and interconnect the product of their research to ensure long-term availability and reproducibility. In the Hurwitz lab, I was involved in the development of a web-platform called Planet Microbe (https://planetmicrobe.org), for the integration of marine metagenomics datasets in their broader environmental context. Since February 2020, I joined the first Data Science fellow cohort at University of Arizona Data Science institute. As a fellow, I am given the opportunity to be part of an exciting cohort of postdocs that share a common passion for data science but has a very diverse background. This has brought a lot of great discussions and exchanges that certainly pushed me to discover new technologies and analytical methods to enrich my research projects.

​My passion for scientific research started the day I saw fungal spores under a microscope. It was my sophomore year in college in a plant pathology class. By the end of that semester, I was an intern in the plant pathology lab. I got my undergraduate degree in Agricultural Engineering, and my interests were applied field research in crop protection and crop health. Little did I know that a decade later I would be making a career move to be a computational biologist.
 
During my PhD, I transitioned from the field research setting to computational biology. I studied the host-pathogen interactions of a soil-borne fungal pathogen of bermudagrass using transcriptomics. It was my introduction to the world of omics and bioinformatics. As I had no background in this area, my biggest challenge yet was to learn bioinformatics tools. I was privileged to have taken two courses at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where I learned computer programming (Python), sequencing technologies, and analyses of omics data. I just fell in love! But, it took a while to become efficient in my data analyses. I started to “get it” when I was approaching the end of my PhD.
 
One month before graduating with my PhD, I came to the University of Arizona in June 2019 to attend the first FOSS (Foundational Open Science Skills) course offered by the CyVerse. Every single day during FOSS I learned new skills that I could apply to improve my data analyses. The most important tool for me  was my code notebook and at FOSS I learned how to develop scripts with RStudio and integrate them with Git. Further, I learned about principles of FAIR data and reproducibility with Git, Jupyter and Rmarkdown. I was also amazed by all the resources CyVerse offers like the Discovery Environment and the Atmosphere (their cloud-computing platform) because it was so easy to use. The people behind the CyVerse are committed to open science and to help researchers, which is very motivating and inspirational for me. I just wish I had taken FOSS at day one of my PhD!
 
I joined the Tfaily lab (Environmental Science-Res) in October 2019. Currently, my main research focus is to develop data analyses pipelines for a variety of research projects. We use a combination of microbial genomics, metabolomics, geochemical and isotopic techniques to understand carbon cycling, soil organic matter composition and climate change in many ecosystems like peatlands, desert, and the tropical rainforest at the Biosphere 2. Pretty soon, I will be expanding our research to agricultural systems to study the role that agricultural management practices play in the soil and plant microbiome, and how those practices affect soil organic matter degradation and formation using the unique and modern techniques that our lab specializes in.
 
My path into computational biology has had many ups and downs. Nonetheless, this experience gave me strength and confidence to not be afraid to get out of my comfort (research) zone. I really enjoy the challenges that computer programming brings to my day-to-day life. I have become highly enthusiastic in sharing my vulnerability, knowledge and collaborating with researchers to help them understand bioinformatics tools and be more efficient in their data analyses.
 
 

Much of my research is built on the idea that data has structure or “shape” and this shape helps us understand the data. For example, voting records may be clustered by party affiliation. In particular, the shapes I am most interested in are topological, like circles or voids (like the inside of a balloon). Detecting and measuring these types of shape can be difficult if the data is complex, that is, there are lots of different components (like many genes for many patients) or it changes over time (like a flock of birds). 

As an illustration, suppose we have a set of points arranged very roughly in a circle. On their own, it’s just a bunch of points, but we can intuitively detect the structure, or how they interact with each other,  by blurring our eyes until the points all merge into a ring. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Mathematics Department of the University of Arizona, my research uses math that makes this structure detection process precise for much more complicated data that evolves over time. This helps answer fundamental questions about the systems the data came from.  For example, with collaborators, I find defects and measure order of arrays of nanodots as they form on semiconductors to better understand the process for potential in manufacturing. I characterize the roughness of snowfields as they melt to better estimate their energy transfer which is used in climate models. In another project we are studying the patchiness of coral reefs to better predict recovery and catastrophic reef loss. I love that math allows me to work on such a wide variety of scientific applications. 

In addition to research, I have had the opportunity, with some colleagues in the math department, to launch a Women in STEM Mentorship Project this fall. This is a peer mentoring program for first year women in STEM majors. I am passionate about mentoring and making pathways for a more diverse STEM workforce. 


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​Human beings are now collecting data at an astounding rate in almost every process that we are involved in, from astronomy to social media to medicine.  But what do we do with all this data?  How do we draw meaningful conclusions from it?  How can we find structure within it?  How can we even use the data for computations when we can’t access it all at once?

My research is in the mathematical foundations of analyzing large-scale, high-dimensional data.  Dimensionality of data can be described as the number of parameters used to describe it.  For instance, an image from our phones has over 10 million pixels, each of which has a red, green, and blue color value.  Such an image can then be thought of as having 30 million parameters to describe it.  But if we just chose random values for colors at each pixel we would not end up with a meaningful picture to the human eye.  Thus, we might expect that real photos can be described by many fewer parameters.

I am interested in the complementary tasks of designing methods which find low-dimensional structure within high-dimensional data, and designing methods which can reduce the dimensionality or complexity of data in a way that is interpretable and faithful to what is there.  I have applied such methods to tasks in Computer Vision, like segmenting motions of objects moving in videos and in facial recognition from images. I have also worked with a Postdoc in Medical Imaging on a method to find the smallest number of parameters that governs, say, MRI images.
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Here at the University of Arizona I am fortunate to be among a tremendous group of interdisciplinary faculty and have had many fruitful collaborations with members of the Data Science Institute as well as Mathematicians, Statisticians, and Computer Scientists in the TRIPODS program.  TRIPODS stands for Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science, and is an NSF-funded initiative designed to bring together researchers from these three fields to work on foundational problems that arise in analyzing data. Sharing common interests but a diverse perspective has brought a lot of great work from the program, and will continue to advance scientific understanding of data analysis moving forward.

​Microbes are present everywhere, from the barren Atacama Desert to the mucous lining of our lungs and guts. Their interactions in the environment and within their hosts fascinate me, which has lead me into the field of microbial ecology.
For my graduate studies, I worked with Dr. Raina Maier at the University of Arizona focusing on the role of microbes in phytostabilization of mine tailings, which are the waste left behind after ore extraction. The goal of phytostabilization is to utilize a plant cover to sequester metals in the root zone and prevent wind erosion. We aimed to assess the feasibility of direct-planting with a compost amendment into highly acidic and toxic metal-contaminated mine tailings that were susceptible to wind erosion and transport into the nearby town. Specifically, my project was to examine how plant-associated bacteria immobilized metals, such as As and Pb, while also contributing to plant health and soil development. I found that while compost amendment and plants increased the pH of the tailings substrate and abundance of plant-growth-promoting bacteria and heterotrophs in the beginning, over time, the tailings returned to acidic conditions dominated by autotrophs as the compost either eroded away or was used up, restricting the presence of beneficial bacteria to ‘islands’ surrounding the plants. Because plants need beneficial bacteria in the bulk soil to recruit from, this indicated unsustainable plant establishment and lack of healthy soil development. To support me in my graduate studies, I had the honor of being awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
In my current postdoc position with Drs. Donata Vercelli and Fernando Martinez at the Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, I have shifted from the environment to the host microbiome by exploring how gut and lung microbiota are associated with asthma. In one of my projects, we use a germ-free mouse model to study the role of the gut microbiome in asthma development. We have discovered that mice receiving fecal transplants from Amish farm children, who have extremely low rates of asthma, protect from experimental asthma while fecal transplants from Hutterite farm children, who have high rates of asthma, do not. This reveals the important role of the gut microbiome in asthma development, which is likely driven in part by microbially-produced metabolites. For this work I was awarded the ATS (American Thoracic Society) Science and Innovation Center Abstract Award. For my other project, I have characterized the sputum microbiome of adult subjects from the Children’s Respiratory Study (CRS) to examine how lower respiratory infections in childhood and smoking can impact adult lung microbiome. We hope that the results could shed light on the potential role of the lung microbiome in the development of asthma and perhaps even chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). During this time, I was supported by the NIH T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.
In my next postdoc adventure, I am excited to join Drs. Laura Meredith and Malak Tfaily at Biosphere 2 to explore the rainforest soil microbiome’s response to drought in the WALD (Water Atmosphere and Life Dynamics) experiment. Overall, I enjoy identifying patterns in microbial ecology using creative approaches, whether by linking the environmental or host microbiomes to geochemical or immunological data, or combining multiple ‘omics datasets. While I’m not working, I enjoy taking time off to run and ride bikes through the beautiful Tucson desert.