Research Summary

Cardiovascular disease is consistently one of the top two causes of death in America. These diseases are multifactorial and are caused in part by fats, or lipids, in our blood. Apolipoproteins are proteins that interact with these blood lipids. Some of these apolipoproteins are helpful in preventing disease, while others are not. My thesis research will involve determining the structural elements of apolipoprotein A-IV that modulate its ability to bind lipid.

Since summer 2005 I have been training in Dr. Sean Davidson’s lab at the Genome Research Institute. An overall goal of the lab, and my project, is to understand how apolipoprotein structure dictates their ability to interact with lipid and prevent atherosclerosis, or cardiovascular disease.

I am an MD/PhD student here at UC. After my PhD training, I will return to medical school to complete two years of clinical training. My long term goal is to combine my science and clinical knowledge to help both current and future patients through good clinical medicine and biomedical research.