I am currently a biomedical research scientist at the University of Florida. I have worked here for 5 years, studying how African Spiny Mice heal skin and organs without scarring. I have led three major discoveries here, 1) almost 50% of spiny mice inflict bite wounds on their cage-mates, which could bias wound healing studies (link), 2) older spiny mice have delayed and lower quality healing than younger spiny mice (publication forthcoming), and 3) spiny mice can regenerate whole whisker follicles after removal (publication forthcoming).
I received a PhD in Biomedical Science from the University of Bern in Switzerland in 2018. My research, here, set out to test whether a general assumption in the design of mouse experiments is true: that mice housed in the same cage are more similar to one another than mice in neighboring cages. Research on dominance hierarchies suggested that this assumption was false because, within a cage, dominant ranked mice have different behavior and physiology than subordinate ranked mice. We found that mice indeed form dominance hierarchies, but they widely vary in structure from cage to cage and some individuals have unstable ranks week to week. By comparing statistical models that included cage-identity and/or social dominance (i.e., rank and hierarchy structure) as a predictor, we found that social dominance more consistently accounted for phenotypic variation across a battery of behavioral measures than the common blocking factor of cage-identity. I published three first-author papers on this topic, 1, 2, 3.
As a scientist I analyzed the data I collected using the R coding language, and have published “tutorials” online through my GitHub. I am currently learning SQL, Python, and Tableau. I am the so-called coding guru on my floor at the university.
I also serve as an Editor at Speaking of Research (an animal research advocacy group) the Newsletter Editor for APA Division 6 (the comparative psychology division of the American Psychological Association), and on the webinar committee for the International Society of Regenerative Biology.
I love using my curious nature to learn new “hobbies” and be creative. I designed my parent’s business logo, taken countless photographs I am quite proud of, and crocheted some animals for friends and family. My perfect day is spent with my family cycling, canoeing, swimming, hammocking, and enjoying a home-made pizza before sleeping in a tent for the night. As a young boy, I always dreamed of being a stunt car driver.