About:

Christina is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Segel at Harvard University where her research is focused on identifying RNA modifications associated with aging regulation. Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Pedro Batista at the National Cancer Institute where she is interested in understanding how interactions between cellular environment and post-transcriptional / translational modifications impact gene regulation in cancer systems. Her long-term career goal is to pursue an academic faculty position where she can lead an interdisciplinary group applying techniques from chemical biology, cell biology, and bioinformatics to connect changes in cellular metabolism to RNA modifications and their downstream impact on gene regulatory programs. Christina has a longstanding interest in teaching and mentoring, as well as STEM education and education research. She completed the “Scientists Teaching Science” pedagogy course and served as a peer writing mentor to post-baccalaureates applying to graduate programs. As a postdoc, Christina has been awarded a Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fellowship, an American Cancer Society Fellowship, and was selected as a Leading Edge Fellow.

Prior to the NIH, Christina received her PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the lab of Dr. Danica Fujimori at UCSF. Her doctoral training employed chemical and biochemical approaches to interrogate the enzymology of tRNA methylating enzymes, as well as developing aptamer-containing, small molecule-sensitive gRNAs for the CRISPR/Cas9 system. While at UCSF Christina was a Genentech-UCSF predoctoral fellow and was heavily involved in science education. Throughout her graduate career, Christina planned and co-taught hands-on sience lessons with K-12 public school teachers in the San Francisco public school district through UCSF’s Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP), developed an initiative to bring SEP programming to the UCSF Children’s Hospital Schoolhouse, served as the course director for the Chemistry and Chemical Biology incoming student bootcamp, and was a founding member of the Science Education Journal Club.

As an undergraduate, Christina received a BA in Biology and a BA in Chemistry with Honors at Macalester College. Christina’s chemistry honors research with Dr. Chris Calderone focused on characterizing enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of several fungal secondary metabolites with interesting biological properties. In addition, Christina served as a new-student orientation leader, was a member of the women’s rugby team, and served as co-president of the Women in Science and Mathematics Club, where during her tenure she established a mentoring program at a nearby girls middle school. She received a number of awards, including induction in to the Iota Sigma Pi chemistry honor society, the chemistry department’s “Outstanding Student Teacher” Award for her mentoring work, and was recognized as a Macalester College “Emerging Leader.”

Outside of lab, Christina enjoys running, cycling, hiking, trying new food, tea, science fiction, and board games.