I am a graduate student in the Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology program. I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, where I attended the University of Arizona for my Bachelor’s Degree. There, I studied the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration caused by TDP-43 in a Drosophila model of ALS in the lab of Dr. Daniela Zarnescu. Here at Johns Hopkins, I study the role of RNA metabolism in CNS biology, as well as how altered RNA metabolism contributes to neurodegeneration in our iPSC-derived neuron model of C9orf72 ALS.