Current position: University of Florida, College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, postdoctoral research associate with Prof. Arthur Edison

Education: Oklahoma State University, B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology, cum laude, 2001; University of Florida, Gainesville, Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology, with Prof. Art Edison, 2006

Nonscientific interests: Entomology, keeping and breeding invertebrates, comedy, playing trumpet, nature photography, travel, gardening, camping, fishing, and hiking through the wilderness

This project was my first chance to incorporate my passion for studying insects with my formal training in biochemistry. One aspect that I found most fascinating was that we were able to analyze venom from a single insect and discover unreported components of that substance. Such a discovery opens new doors to understanding arthropod chemistry. Indeed, only a tiny fraction of the total chemical biodiversity that exists in insects alone has been determined. I hope to continue exploring the large potential for discovery that exists in these creatures. Using cutting-edge technologies such as the microsample NMR used in our study of phasmid insect venom, we can now begin to push the frontiers of natural products chemistry. I am currently looking for future work involving medicinal and natural product discovery from invertebrates. (Read Dossey’s article on p 511.)

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