I am a chemist passionate about research at the interface of chemistry and medicine. Molecular imaging by ambient ionization mass spectrometry (MS) has recently emerged as a powerful tool in biomedical research. I have broad background in analytical chemistry with specific training and expertise in MS. I have experience designing and performing basic and translational research projects through which I have managed collaborative teams of surgeons, pathologists, oncologists, biologists, and statisticians to develop new chemical methods for tissue imaging and cancer diagnosis. I have successfully competed for research funding from several sources including the NIH. Through my young career, I contributed to advancing the emerging ambient ionization mass spectrometry (MS) field to its current state: pioneering ambient ionization MS for the diagnosis of human brain, prostate, gastric and other solid cancers, developing novel methods for histologically compatible MS imaging, multimodal MS imaging, drug distribution imaging and 3D ambient molecular imaging, identifying diagnostic metabolic patterns of cancer related to oncogene expression, adapting refined statistical tools to build classification models from MS imaging data, and pioneering the intrasurgical use of ambient ionization for surgical margins evaluation. My career goal is to develop novel technology to improve human health.
