Experience

Research and manufacturing roles, methods, education and honors.

Positions

Aug 2025 – Present

Krystal BiotechcGMP manufacturing of gene therapies

End-to-end cGMP manufacturing, from buffer preparation and upstream cell culture to downstream purification and aseptic fill.
Primary subject matter expert for qualifying and implementing a new manufacturing process, working directly with the FDA during qualification.
Trained a 12-person manufacturing team on the new process and mentor two newly hired process engineers.

Mar 2025 – Aug 2025

Liu Lab, University of PittsburghDe novo enzyme design

Simulated de novo enzymes designed for new-to-nature bond formation with AMBER molecular dynamics to assess structural viability.
Generated force-field parameters for heme and porphyrin cofactors with transition-metal centers.
Clustered simulation data with k-means to identify conformational substates.

Apr 2023 – Aug 2025

Byrne Lab, University of PittsburghRetinal gene therapy

Designed and cloned viral vectors; purified AAV on ÄKTA Pure systems by affinity chromatography, gradient elution and sterile formulation.
Developed and validated quantitative behavioral assays to phenotype vision in mouse cohorts.
Used computational modeling and molecular docking to prioritize novel AAV capsid variants.

Oct 2020 – Apr 2023

Byrne Lab, University of PittsburghRetinal gene therapy

Large-scale AAV purification by ultracentrifugation and FPLC, with affinity and ion-exchange chromatography.
Maintained HEK293 cultures for high-efficiency transfection and vector production under BSL-2 conditions.
Evaluated transcription factors and injection methods to improve repigmentation in OCA1 mice.
Built a Python and R scRNA-seq pipeline comparing tyrosinase-negative and wild-type retinal cells.

Methods and tools used across the roles above
Area	Methods
Molecular and cell biology	Plasmid preparation, molecular cloning, viral vector design, HEK293 cell culture, PCR, transfection, BSL-2 sterile technique
Gene therapy and bioprocessing	AAV production and purification, ÄKTA Pure and FPLC, bioreactor operation, affinity and ion-exchange chromatography, ultracentrifugation, sterile formulation, cGMP manufacturing, aseptic fill
Computational	Python, R, Bash and Unix, scRNA-seq analysis, AMBER molecular dynamics, molecular docking, molecular modeling

Dec 2023

University of Pittsburgh

Minors in Chemistry, Computer Science and History

2021

University of Pittsburgh

Competitive undergraduate fellowship supporting independent research in AAV gene therapy for oculocutaneous albinism type 1.

2023

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