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Born in Florida, raised in New Jersey, undergrad in Tampa, graduate school  in NYC, few years in Boston, remote work in North Carolina, and currently in Denver for medical school. 

My mother is a programmer and my father is a chef, so food is integral in my existence. This upbringing positioned me uniquely to pursue a degree in chemistry after highschool. As soon as possible, I began researching in cancer therapeutics at the Dr. Jaingfeng Cai lab at USF doing peptidomimetics. This biochemistry work was fun, and I transitioned into the Leahy group where I was working on the project of a lifetime: full synthesis of cannabinoids. This was especially cool to me because of my interest in drug abuse research, working on analogs of cannabinoids like THCd9 to help us understand our CB1 / CB2 receptor system. 

I stuck with the Leahy group for around three years, and at times overlapping in research with the Gulick lab at Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute and the Rivera group at USF’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance lab. Through all these research experiences, I began to see  that computer science, combined with machine learning techniques, was the future of discovery. With this, I postponed my medical school pursuit for a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, which I was thrilled to be accepted to Cornell Tech. 

At Cornell Tech, we had the world at our fingertips. Nestled in Roosevelt Island of NYC, I was starstruck to learn from established faculty like Dr. Estrin, Dr. Kanan, Dr. Belongie, David Tisch, and many others (also took a meeting with the CTO of Microsoft and Facebook then, among other powerful minds). From their guidance and inspiration, I had my first test of startup formation, where I formed a team of five to prevent addiction to prescription opioids through technology. I am proud to say it was a failed company, and the lessons learned will be precisely what has my next company(s) be successful. To better master the ins-and-outs of startups, I worked closely with the small NYC biotech A2A Pharmaceuticals. 

For three years I lived the startup culture learning from my fantastic leaders, our team of five taking on investor meetings, renting five person air-bnbs in San Fransisco for JPM, applying the algorithms I learned from Cornell to drug discovery, and playing a key part with contractors to get our compounds synthesized. I was able to take part in successfully drugging proteins like KRAS (PROTAC approach), COVID19-Mpro, TYK2 pseudokinase, TACC3, and more. Some of which are currently in clinical trials to help cancer patients in ways never previously achievable. 

In the years of startup culture, I was bitten by the bug of starting companies myself. In that time I founded Making More LLC, a real estate venture with Master Sergant Michael Diaz, and PharmaMarket LLC, a blockchain tokenomics framework to help small biotechs raise non-dilutive capital. Both of these companies are doing well. In my third year of medical school, I pivoted to create a medical education company, thanks to my mentor Dr. Sophia Ambruso. We develop games for medical learning :)

Still at medical school, supported by the incredible team at CU Anschutz, I continue researching. This time, I am asking the patients directly what they need most and letting my idea flow from them. With the team members I have had the pleasure of learning from, we will come together to create a paradigm shift in how healthcare is carried out. Stay tuned for more!