Doctoral Student My research focuses on how chromatin state can influence the process of mutation in plants. The DNA within cells is wrapped around proteins called histones, which can be chemically modified in different ways to mark that the associated DNA is a gene, transposable element, or something else. These histone modifications can also be recognized by DNA repair machinery to target DNA repair to certain regions of the genome. I'm working to identify which DNA repair pathways have this targeted activity and which histone modifications they recognize. Targeted DNA repair could allow organisms to tune their mutation rate and reduce the chance of mutations in genes and other important regions of the genome. I mostly work with Arabidopsis thaliana and do a mix of computational and wet lab research. I have experience analyzing several types of next generation sequencing data and developing library preparation methods for detecting mutations. Education Education: B.S. University of Wisconsin-Madison
