Lab Team

I am in the Neuroscience program at Weill Cornell. Currently, I am using mouse models to understand the regulation of intraocular pressure. In addition, I have studied other potential therapeutic roles of sAC and cAMP within sperm.

With my research I’m trying to understand the changes in energy metabolism during sperm capacitation and how the soluble adenylate cyclase regulates these processes. In parallel, I work on developing a soluble adenylate cyclase inhibitor into an on-demand, reversible male contraceptive. For this project I recently got awarded with a fellowship by the Male Contraceptive Initiative.

My project is to purify and elucidate the function of an endogenous inhibitor to soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC). As a potential small molecule, this endogenous inhibitor is present in cell lysate and is capable of fully inhibiting sAC activity. My long-term goals are to combine the mechanism-based drug knowledge I gained in Pharmacy School with the research expertise I will gain in Grad School to developing new & more effective drugs that produce fewer side effects.

While studying at Hunter I joined Dr. Kleiman laboratory where I researched effects of HuR protein on cancer cell growth and survival. I joined Dr. Buck and Dr. Levin laboratory and am very excited to do immunology research using dendritic cell and to analyze response of second messenger cAMP to inhibitors.

My project focuses on the role of soluble adenylyl cyclase in microglia, specifically in mechanisms of activation.  I am passionate about neuroimmunology, especially in the context of aging and neurodegenerative disease, and my work in the Levin/Buck lab allows me to explore these concepts from a basic science lens.  Discoveries from this project could potentially uncover useful therapeutic targets for treating age-related diseases.

My overall research goal in the lab is to discover and characterize pharmacological and novel endogenous activators of soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC). In pursuit of this goal, I am currently using a high-throughput screening method designed to identify small-molecule activators of sAC.

I was interested in the male contraceptive project currently running in the lab. My interest lay in human behavior and I hope to obtain a PhD in neuroscience sometime in the immediate future. I also have an interest in promoting sciences within minorities, especially amongst black males, as I believe this is a domain of all research that can be improved upon.