My clinical interests are in pediatric inflammatory and infectious diseases and my long-term research goals are to better understand the interface between microbes and the mammalian immune system. In particular, I am interested in how microbial-derived signals influence innate and adaptive immune cell populations to direct inflammatory responses that control infection or contribute to inflammatory disease. Over the past 12 years I have developed expertise in molecular cellular biologic, microbiologic and immunologic research techniques. I began my research training as an undergraduate in the laboratory of Dr. Elizabeth Jones at Carnegie Mellon University where I developed molecular and cellular based assays to investigate cellular pathways in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In 2005, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Sanjay Desai at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases where I investigated the physiology and pathogenesis of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In 2006, I joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where I completed my PhD in the laboratory of Dr. David Artis. My thesis work focused on understanding how commensal bacterial populations that colonize the mammalian intestine influence the development of allergic inflammation and diseases. Under the guidance of Dr. Artis I developed new in vitro and in vivo systems that allowed me to interrogate how commensal bacteria-derived signals regulate the development and activation of innate immune cell populations. I also correlated findings in model systems with translational studies in patient populations with inflammatory diseases.