After a 3 year fellowship, I became a board-certified laboratory geneticist, a wife, a transplant to New York, and a mother.
I axolotl questions, and that’s why axolotl genomics have been a theme in my research history. When I started my Ph.D., I was drawn to complex genomic problems because I wanted to become an expert in something challenging, make a meaningful contribution to scientific inquiry, and ensure that when I eventually transitioned to human genetics, it would feel less daunting by comparison.
I've always loved the narrative of the Y chromosome as weak and withering while the X is resilient and smart. So when I began studying sex chromosome evolution in the axolotl, I was thrilled to learn more about sex chromosomes still early in their evolutionary trajectory—where they looked identical but were already on diverging paths.
When Joseph G. Gall, founder of fluorescent in situ hybridization asked me to be his last postdoctoral researcher, I accepted in the same hour. I will never forget the day I was able to identify the centromeres using BAC FISH, and Joe’s arms shot up in the air as he looked in the confocal, “You’ve done it! I can’t believe what I’m seeing!”
I was Jeramiah Smith’s first graduate student, so I started out working on what he loved because it was fascinating. After a year, I switched to working on different complex genomic questions, but I still love this work.
The pandemic ruined a lot of plans, but Carnegie Institution for Science totally shut down, and I never got to finish my project. I’d love to tell you about it anyway.
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