What is your favourite enzyme, and why?

I’d have to say DNA polymerase because my research program invests a lot of time synthesizing genes and plasmids.

 

What is your favourite book?

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom. It’s a fantastically complex story with interesting anecdotes about a fictional singer-songwriter’s life, organized into time signatures and narrated by music.

 

What is the most recent book you’ve read?

It seems like almost every week I re-read pages in Mathematics for Chemists by Charles L Perrin. It’s a great resource providing the mathematical foundations for molecular calculations and computing!

 

What is your favourite amino acid, and why?

Threonine: it’s an essential amino acid, it has two stereogenic centers, and its hydroxyl functional group has numerous post-translational modifications.

 

What are some of your hobbies?

I enjoy playing guitar, brewing beer, and spending time outdoors hiking and exploring the wilderness.  

 

What is your dream vacation?

I’ve always wanted to explore the Galápagos Islands, they have such a beautiful diversity of plants and animals!

 

What is the coolest project you’ve ever worked on?

As a scientist, I spend a lot of time thinking about our experiments and questions we don’t have answers to yet. For this reason, I always have the impression that the coolest project is whatever the lab is actively engaged in. For the moment, we are engineering genetic circuits to function as set/reset latches that would confer flash drive-like memory regulating gene expression in E. coli.

 

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in lab?

I’ve set a fume hood on fire with t-butyl lithium, fortunately no one was injured!

 

Do you have any advice or anything else you want to say?

Science is difficult and laborious, it requires a dedication to repeat and refine experimental methodologies. When protocols aren’t working in the lab its important to remember you always have another day to try something new. That’s why its important to never leave the lab feeling defeated.