I graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. My work in graduate School in Dr. Jean Lucas-Lenard's lab focused on understanding how picornaviruses inhibited host protein synthesis. During my postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester in Dr. Bob Bambara's lab, I studied the biochemical properties of HIV reverse transcriptase (RT). After joining the University of Maryland at College Park, my lab has continued to work on HIV and picornavirus replication. We also generate unique aptamers (nucleic acid sequences selected for high affinity binding to proteins or other targets) to viral proteins including SARS-2 virus proteins. The aptamers can potentially be used as diagnostics or viral inhibitors.
