In the section of my grade 8 yearbook where we were asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” my answer was, “a research scientist”. Over a decade later, that aspiration has not changed. I distinctly remember being fascinated by cell biology when I was 13. In my mind, a cell was like a city – the nucleus was town hall, the mitochondria were power plants, the golgi were post offices, and the endoplasmic reticulum were the roads and freeways. 

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I identified with cities because I grew up in the big metropolis of Toronto. After high school, I decided to give small town life a try and relocated to rural Nova Scotia to complete my undergraduate degree at St. Francis Xavier University. Here, I was lucky enough to launch my research career under the supervision of Dr. David Garbary and Dr. Moira Galway. For the next four summers and eventually for my Honour’s thesis, I worked on a project studying how cells of a brown alga periodically shed their outer cell walls. 

 

My incredible undergraduate research experience motivated me to pursue graduate school. I eventually decided to uproot myself and travel to British Columbia to study plant roots under the supervision of Dr. Geoff Wasteneys at the University of British Columbia. Since roots enable plants to uptake water and nutrients, maintaining proper root growth is critical for a plant to survive and thrive in changing environments.  For my PhD, I am studying what makes root cells grow in areas called meristems, and how cells control the transition between active proliferation and differentiation. My work encompasses a broad array of research strategies and techniques, including genetic engineering, microscopy, drug treatments, and computational biology. When I’m not at the lab bench, I love to dedicate my time to jogging, yoga, hiking, cooking, and reading. 

 

Research is inspiring to me because I view my job as the ultimate brain teaser – we start with a question and must think outside the box and use logic to ultimately solve the riddle. Except sometimes the ‘answer’ generates another question and we get to start all over again, getting a little wiser along the way. I am motivated by the challenge of solving a problem, yet always humbled by how much I still don’t know.