Specialize in human health risk assessment for pesticides.

My postdoctoral position was in the laboratory of Dr. James Frank, a professor at UCSF and clinician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. My research focused on the role of the tight junction protein claudin-4 in epithelial injury, repair and barrier function in the setting of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome. We utilized in vivo and in vitro models of epithelial injury to study tight junction formation, regulation, and function with the hope of finding novel targets to treat patients with critical lung diseases.

Research for my doctoral dissertation focused on sex differences in the development of epithelial tolerance to the acute lung cytotoxicant naphthalene. I investigated physiological and biochemical changes to the pulmonary epithelium in response to repeated toxic exposures as well as differences in naphthalene pharmacokinetics by sex and length of exposure. During my doctoral research I gained expertise in various types of imaging (SEM, light microscopy, fluorescent microscopy, and confocal imaging), histology, RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, pharmacokinetics, animal models, gene array, and in vivo inhalation models. Research from my graduate studies resulted in 3 publications, 2 as first author.