I am currently an eighth year MD/PhD candidate in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I have defended my PhD thesis in Pathology and am now completing my clinical training and applying to radiation oncology residency programs.
I am a 2018 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where I received both a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and Biology, with distinction in both majors, and a Master of Science in Chemistry. While at Penn, I conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Constantinos Koumenis into the role of Interleukin-6 in acute and delayed gastrointestinal toxicity using a novel mouse model of focal image-guided irradiation.
For my thesis research at Einstein, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Chandan Guha in the Department of Radiation Oncology to study how the physical characteristics of radiation can alter its biological effects. I investigated the impact of radiation energy on hematopoietic, gastrointestinal, and immunologic injury using orthovoltage X-rays and 137Cs γ-rays and identified an energy dependence of RBE using modern preclinical irradiators. In collaboration with the New York Proton Center, I studied the effects of pencil beam scanned FLASH proton therapy on gastrointestinal toxicity. Furthermore, I have coordinated multi-institutional collaborations with the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Heidelberger Ionenstrahl Therapiezentrum to elucidate the immunologic consequences of carbon ion radiotherapy in pancreatic cancer. I am currently funded by an NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F30CA278322).
Highlights
Research
My research has focused on how the biological response to radiation depends its unique physical characteristics.