Biography

I was born in Italy to an American military family.  We moved to the U.S. when I was 2, and we have since lived all over the country.  As a kid, I remember moving around so much being quite stressful, but now that I’m older, I have come to appreciate all the amazing experiences I gained.  I’ve been rafting down a waterfall (with no life jacket), snowmobiling through endless wilderness, rock climbing on cliffs once inhabited by Native Americans, skydiving on the CA coast, not to mention the countless interesting people I have met along the way.  I think that living in so many unique and wonderful places has contributed to my inquisitive nature, and I’m thankful that all my various life experiences have led me here to UCSB.

Awards & Honors

Research

Riboswitches are regulatory elements found in the 5’-UTR of mRNA.  They are comprised of an aptamer and expression platform; when the aptamer binds its ligand, a structural change is induced in the expression platform that either allows or disallows transcription (or translation).  Essentially, they are “on/off” switches for genes that can be controlled by sensing their environment.  Although riboswitches have only recently been discovered, it is clear that they represent a powerful tool in synthetic biology, not to mention a possible important regulatory mechanism that may have been crucial in RNA World organisms.  Our lab is focused on selecting novel expression platforms that can work for a given (arbitrary) aptamer.  In theory, we can create a riboswitch that regulate any gene in response to any aptamer ligand.  We are exploring the entirety of sequence space for short expression platforms (<25 bp), and hoping to use machine learning and other computational techniques to provide insights into design principles for creating novel riboswitches.