Biography

Education:
B.S. in Computer Science, University of Florida
M.S. in Medical Sciences (Molecular Medicine), University of South Florida

Year in Program: G3

Thesis Mentor: Drs. Francesca Luca, PhD and Roger Pique-Regi, PhD, Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Funding: NIH/NIGMS F30 Ruth L. Kirschstein Individual Predoctoral NRSA

 

Research Interests

I study interactions between host genetic variation and gut microbiome composition and their impact on host gene regulation using functional genomics approaches. Using patient derived intestinal organoids and fecal microbiome samples I aim to characterize these host-microbiome interactions to identify potential microbial therapeutic targets for IBD as well as other digestive disorders.

Honors and Awards

UF College of Engineering Dean's List – 2013 - 2014
Order of Omega Honors Society - Fall 2015

Publications

1. Bullard WL, Kara M, Gay LA, Sethuraman S, Wang Y, Nirmalan S, Esemenli A, Feswick A, Hoffman BA, Renne R, Tibbetts SA. (2019) Identification of murine gammaherpesvirus 68 miRNA-mRNA hybrids reveals miRNA target conservation among gammaherpesviruses including host translation and protein modification machinery. PLoS Pathog. 2019 Aug 8;15(8):e1007843. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007843
2. Resztak J, Choe J, Nirmalan S, Wei J, Bruinsma R, Houpt R, Alazizi A, Mair-Meijers HE, Wen X, Slatcher RB, Zilioli S, Pique-Regi R, Luca F. Analysis of transcriptional changes in the immune system associated with pubertal development. Nature Communications.

 

Other Information

Conferences Attended:

2023
Midwest Population Genetics
American Society for Human Genetics conference
2022
Biology of Genomes, CSHL
Microbiome, CSHL

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