Research

Postdoctoral Research

Evaluating toxicity of inhaled essential oils as an emerging product of concern for respiratory health in vitro using primary and immortalized respiratory epithelial cells

I am currently a postdoctoral research trainee in Dr. Meghan Rebuli's Lab at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill working on investigating the impact of inhaled essential oil devices on respiratory epithelium. After establishing baseline toxicological markers, I am interested in investing potential mechanisms of action primarily focusing on endocrine disruption and mitochondrial dysfunction.

I am also working on projects associated with vaping, looking at differences between e-cig users, non smokers, traditional smokers and dual users and the differences in their inflammatory immune profiles.

Graduate Research

Exploring the Environment: Investigating an Environmental Contributor to Parkinson’s Disease: Streptomyces venezuelae in C. elegans

I am interested in how the environment impacts Parkinson's Disease. More specifically, I am interested in how a bacterial secondary metabolite influences aging and neurodegeneration. I have found that the secondary metabolite I work on produces a hormetic aging response in C. elegans. I am investigating the hypothesis that differences in ROS activation are causes these hormetic differences, and that there are differences in the modulation of genes involved in redox reactions. As a Black women from a rural area, environmental contributors to disease are of high relevance and concern considering their impact of such populations.

Identifying distinct mechanisms of UPRmt activation and alteration of fatty acid metabolism in various familial a-syn variants in C. elegans

I am also interested in how mitochondria and lipid metabolism influence neurodegeneration. Using different pharmacological approaches, I'm interested in discovering mechanisms in which neuroprotection can be achieved through genetic manipulation.