I am a second-year Microbial Biology PhD student. I am interested in studying pathogens that cause zoonotic, vector-borne diseases, so I decided to do my graduate research in Dr. Alvaro Toledo’s Lab in the Entomology Department. I study various tick-borne pathogens, but my PhD research focuses on the cell membrane physiology of the spirochete bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease in humans. I also received my BS degree in Microbiology from Rutgers, during which time I did research in Dr. Bradley Hillman’s Virology Lab, Department of Plant Biology. My undergraduate research was on hypoviruses that could be used as potential biological control agents against the pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, which causes chestnut blight.