Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  University of California - Riverside

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My current research focus includes understanding processes necessary for DNA recombination and repair, and in general the role of epigenetic regulation in differential gene expression. I worked for 3 years in an Arabidopsis lab studying the pathways that maintain the shoot apical meristem in plants. I conducted two projects aimed at understanding the role of several small signaling molecules in the growth and development of the plant and the second had to do with understanding the role of several chromatin remodeling proteins on the transcriptional landscape of the shoot apical meristem, particularly in how genes critical for maintaining the plant's pluripotent stem cells are differentially expressed.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I decided to pursue a science career while I was in high school, initially because I was fascinated with the concept of a nearly universally conserved molecule (DNA), as well as my growing frustration with the lack of knowledge afforded by my textbooks which seemed to always end any interesting discussion with "this process is still not completely understood." I was eager to pursue my own research and have the access and ability to read scientific literature that to me felt like the unfolding of a continuous and ever-deepening story.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  My favorite thing about plants and what drew me to the research originally was the fact that they almost universally maintain a collection of pluripotent stem cells throughout the entirety of their lives, that retain the ability to differentiate into almost every recognizable feature of the plant. That, along with the fact that they modified early earth by oxygenating the atmosphere, are the coolest facts I've ever learned.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  I was helping out a fellow researcher planting maize in a field. It was just the two of us outside and it was early evening when we heard gobbling in the distance. We were forced to abandon our project and run as a stampede of wild turkeys, apparently spooked by a predator, followed us until we managed to hop over a nearby fence.

  
  
• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

  Association for Women in Science

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

5.2 Quentin and Bobert Ellen Gregory Apr 2, 2020

Hello! I hope everyone is well. I'm in California, where a shelter-in-place order has been active for the past couple weeks. My research has completely stopped, and the campus I work at is shut down. Currently myself and my lab members are…

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Hello! I hope everyone is well. I'm in California, where a shelter-in-place order has been active for the past couple weeks. My research has completely stopped, and the campus I work at is shut down. Currently myself and my lab members are focusing on small computational projects and data analysis. We're also working on writing reviews and a methods paper on CRISPR. I'm sorry the plant project has come to a halt, but if there is any other way you would like to use this forum (journal club to go over papers or methods you all are interested in, general science questions, or just to check in) I will certainly be around. I hope everyone is staying safe!

5.2 Quentin and Bobert Ellen Gregory Mar 12, 2020

Great to hear everything is progressing! Are you keeping track of the true leaves that emerge by day (ie taking note that there's 12 one day, 14 the next, etc)? If so, another parameter you could measure is the rate at which they've produced…

more

Great to hear everything is progressing! Are you keeping track of the true leaves that emerge by day (ie taking note that there's 12 one day, 14 the next, etc)? If so, another parameter you could measure is the rate at which they've produced the leaves to see if it differs between the high and low nutrient conditions.

5.2 Quentin and Bobert Ellen Gregory Mar 6, 2020

Thank you for the update! Do you have a control, for example a plant that hasn't been nutrient-supplemented?