I grew up north of Detroit in a small town called Armada, Michigan.  I graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in Genetics and one in Microbiology as well.  During my time there, I worked for four years in the Day Lab at MSU's Plant Resilience Institute where I studied actin dynamics and its relationship to innate plant immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana and Benthamiana nicotiana.   I am currently interested in RNA biology, and DNA repair pathways.  Outside of the lab, you can find me hiking the Rockies.