Developing new therapeutics to treat NF2 neurofibromatosis by targeting the hippo signaling pathway and chromatin readers.

Studying the role of protein translation fidelity in cancer by targeting ribosome assembly and tRNA-synthetases.

Biomedical research that provided experimental support for the development of tRNA synthetase inhibitors as cancer therapeutics.•Awarded the Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research (FCBTR) and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2) grant entitled, “Perturbing genetic code fidelity, an innovative strategy for the eradication of glioblastoma.”

Biomedical research identifying therapeutic susceptibilities of MYC driven malignancies.•Identified the lactate transporter, Slc16a1/Mct1, as a drugable target in Myc driven cancers.•Developed cell based assays to identify and distinguish Slc16a1/Mct1 and Slc16a3/Mct4 specific inhibitors.

Biotechnology laboratory instructor.

Basic research on embryonic mesoderm and hematopoietic development.•Created a transgenic Xenopus animal that expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP) in vascular endothelial cells. •Carried out a Xenopus gene expression array to identify transcriptional targets of the homeodomain protein Mix.3/mixer. •Identified the domains of Mix.3/mixer that are responsible for endoderm development in Xenopus.

Maintained mammalian cell cultures and carried out immunofluorescent and immunoprecipitation experiments to examine the normal and diseased function of the secretory pathway in kidney cells. Maintained laboratory inventory; reagents, buffers, glassware and plasticware.