PhD Candidate
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Matt is a fourth-year PhD candidate at the University of Arizona (UA). Originally from Colorado, he completed his undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at UA, where he joined the lab of Jesse Woodson and investigates the molecular processes at play in selective chloroplast degradation and cell death. His work with the Woodson lab involves the use of a forward genetic approach, activation tagging, in a suppressor screen to identify genes and molecular mechanisms involved in singlet oxygen (1O2)-induced chloroplast quality control (CQC). He is also investigating how different reactive oxygen species generated in various subcellular compartments affect CQC and is exploring a potential role for microautophagy as a mechanism in the vacuolar transport of 1O2-damaged chloroplasts in CQC. In his free time, Matt enjoys hiking, cinema, photography, and traveling as much as possible.