ABOUT ME
Welcome! I am a sixth year PhD candidate working with Todd Oakley in the Ecology, Evolution, & Marine Biology and Biological Engineering departments at the University of California Santa Barbara. I received my bachelor's degree in biochemistry and anthropology from Hunter College in NYC. My research program aims to apply biochemistry to address fundamental questions in evolutionary biology, such as: (1) How and why do complex systems convergently evolve through similar and disparate evolutionary trajectories? (2) What genetic mechanisms and patterns underlie phenotypic convergence? (3) How can we apply fundamental knowledge in evolution to improve and develop new biotechnological tools? To tackle these questions, my research focuses on bioluminescence, the biological production of light. Bioluminescence is an excellent system for studying evolutionary convergence because it evolved over 94 times through trajectories with varying degrees of convergence (Lau and Oakley, 2021). By examining diverse routes (across levels of biological organization) to phenotypic convergence, we can improve and/or identify alternative designs for biotechnology. My thesis investigates the convergent evolution of bioluminescence in various marine organisms, including ostracods (crustaceans about the size of a sesame seed) and the midshipman fishes. Because bioluminescence research is inherently interdisciplinary, my research uses a combination of bioinformatics, chemistry, and molecular biology to understand how novel proteins used in bioluminescence systems evolved (i.e. crystallins, luciferases, luciferin storage proteins). |