Profile

I have recently finished my PhD degree in Immunology at University of Cambridge in the UK. My undergraduate degree was Honours Microbiology & Immunology at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). I first became interested in immunology research during high school when I attended a science outreach event similar to this one. During my undergraduate degree, I made a huge effort to get involved with research and learning to be a better scientist. Beyond the lab bench, I enjoy playing & teaching violin especially improvising on my electric violin, and the typical (at least for Vancouver) outdoor activities (skiing, camping, kayaking, hiking, biking, climbing etc).

Our immune system is always hard at work even when we are not sick. I research what our immune system does when we are healthy. In particular, I am interested in how and if the immune system communicates between different organs throughout your body. My main focus is on B cells; this immune cell’s main job is to produce lots and lots of antibodies–tiny Y-shaped things that can bind and help kill bad bacteria and viruses. I look at how these B cells travel between the gut and the spleen, and see if the B cells get better at their job if they are exposed to more bacteria.

After I wake up and eat breakfast, I like to check my emails to see if there’s any urgent problems. Some days I work from home on my computer where I analyse big datasets by writing lots of code and making pretty graphs. Using cool technology such as DNA sequencing, I can look at how individual cells are different and how they relate to one and other. Other days, I go into the lab so that I can run tissue and blood samples on machines to collect my big datasets. I also work with other scientists all around the world, so sometimes I have zoom meetings so that we can work together better.