Physiology: Modern Cell Biology

Marine Biology Lab | Woods Hole

I met Professor Rob Phillips of CalTech at the Annual MIT Synthetic Biology Symposium in January 2014. Rob gave the keynote and I happened to speak on open-source tools for synthetic biology directly afterwards. Rob tracked me down after my talk and said, "you need to take your show on the road. Want to come to Woods Hole for the summer? It's a very special place," he said, with a knowing look.

I arrived at Woods Hole not knowing what to expect. What I experienced was not only an unforgettable teaching experience, but also a historical experience, connecting back to generations of scientists before me. I sat under the tree where Watson and Crick met to discuss their experiments in 1954. I saw the same sunsets. And of course, I helped catch squid from the squid farm, harvest optical nerves and purify proteins. It was a profound experience and I'm so honored to be part of the MBL family!