Research:

Peripheral nerve injury is an extremely common affliction in the United States with some statistics claiming 800,000 cases per year.  To this date, the mechanisms underlying nerve regeneration remain largely unknown.  In Ben-Yakar's lab, I combined cutting edge laser technology with the model organism, C. elegans,  to study nerve regeneration. This was done by severing axons and then observing their recovery.  The outcome of this work should aid in the understanding of traumatic nerve injury and give us valuable insights into many neurodegenerative diseases; such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

• B.S. in General Biology from the University of California at San Diego - June 1998
• M.S. in Psychophysiology from the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego, California - June 2001    
• Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Austin - May 2008