I have a long-standing interest in mechanisms which regulate miRNA-mediated gene silencing and alternative splicing.  My passion for RNA biology started when I began my PhD at King’s College London in the department of of Cardiovascular medicine.  Here, I worked on a group of complex nuclear envelope scaffold proteins called nesprins.  I identified novel nesprin isoforms with scaffolding roles beyond the nuclear envelope, including one isoform which scaffolds mRNA processing-bodies (P-bodies) to the microtubule cytoskeleton.  I also demonstrated this nesprin isoform interacts with  Matrin-3, an interesting protein which is involved in alternative splicing  and mutated in ALS.  I have recently transformed into a neuroscientist after completing a postdoc at the University of Bristol, where I started elucidating roles played by miRNAs and RNA binding proteins in synaptic plasticity.  Synapses undergro rapid changes is response to stimulation and I am continuing to identify molecular mechanisms associated with fast miRNA-mediated gene silencing responses at the University of Colorado.