📍Seattle

I am the science communication manager at the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. Our work was a runner-up for Science Magazine's 2016 Breakthrough of the Year (thanks, gravitational waves).

I'm also a freelance science writer and biotech consultant. My writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Forbes, Scientific American, Fast Company, and more than 30 other outlets. As a 2018 AAAS Mass Media fellow, I reported on the progress and process of science at the Philadelphia Inquirer. As a columnist for SynBioBeta, I write about the scientific, cultural and economic forces shaping synthetic biology.

Before becoming a science writer, I studied "junk" DNA, how to turn plants into fuel, and, for my Masters, used computers to design new, functional genes.

COVID-19 Vaccine

I participated in the world’s first clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine. You can read about my first injection here and my much more dramatic second injection here.