Academics and research information:

• Attended Yale University for undergraduate. Degree awarded: B.S. (intensive) in biology.
• Check out the Yale Whiffenpoofs singing on the web!

• Completed master's degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at UCSC (home of the fighting banana slug) in the lab of Yishi Jin. Go here to read what I did for my Master's degree: J Neurosci 19(15): 6225-6234.

• Go here to see a picture of a glowing green worm. (For anyone interested, GFP is expressed in all GABAergic neurons in this animal.)

• Here's a protocol for doing footprinting.

• After grad school, I worked as a technician at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UCSF. Getting worms drunk on a daily basis was a hoot.

• I worked for 2 years in the pathology department at Stanford University. I worked on transcriptionally upregulated genes in cervical and breast cancer. Here's the paper that we published.

• I currently work at the Stanford Human Genome Center doing finishing work. Surprisingly, I really enjoy production work - and I really like the people I work with!

• Music - both performance and composition. I sing in church choirs, Stanford Summer Chorus, and whatever else I can find. In addition, I sort of play the Celtic lap harp, and play piano a tiny tiny bit. Go here to see my compositions.

• I also like listening to music. Go here for links to some of my favorite artists hosted by mp3.com.

• Aikido - nice way to be active, since I spend a lot of time sitting at microscopes or computers. Besides, throwing my husband to the ground on a regular basis (or getting thrown by him) is fun!
  (We ended up giving up this activity in early 2003 after a number of small injuries on my part kept me off the mat too much to train seriously. Now we do ballroom dancing instead. Lots of fun, and rather safer!)

• We've taken up fencing relatively recently. It's very active and a lot of fun. I come home with bruises regularly, but that's about the worst that's happened. :)

• Watching my husband work on his 3-D modeller, Art of Illusion.

• Reading - both aloud with my husband (a tradition started by Yale Storyreading) and silently. Favorite genres: fantasy and sci-fi. Check out my husband's grandfather's webpage. He just published his first novel, at age 90. Go here for a list of books that Peter and I have read aloud to each other. Go here for a list of books Peter and I have listened to on tape.

• As part of the 'reading aloud,' both Peter and I have started doing volunteer readings for LibriVox. It's a wonderful site with really neat people that makes free audio recordings of books that are in the public domain in the US (published before 1923, except in some really weird cases). It's a wonderfully fun addiction! Here are some recordings that I've done for Librivox. (If the link is broken, hunt for it over on Librivox itself.)

• Playing computer games - both alone and with my husband. Favorite genres: RPG and adventure/puzzle solving games. Go here for information on games we play.

• Since Peter and I recently got Mac OS X, and since our original hard drive was called Milo, I spent some time making some icons that might be suitable for the hard drive.

• I recently designed a cross-stitch project for my husband. Chart available; pictures of the completed project will be posted when I'm done.