I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Özpolat Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, where I study how animals can rebuild themselves after injury, and how that ability affects the rest of the body.

That ability to rebuild lost or damaged body parts is called regeneration. I am especially interested in the “side effects” of regeneration: the changes that happen beyond the injury site, across different cell types, tissues, organs, and life-history traits such as growth, reproduction, and lifespan.

My research models are polychaete worms, marine segmented worms. Some species can regrow tails, while others can regenerate both heads and tails. These abilities are deeply connected to how they reproduce, age, and evolve. By combining morphology, experimental biology, next-generation sequencing, and genetic approaches, I aim to uncover the molecular secrets behind this biological paradox.

These tiny marine creatures will transform our understanding of healthspan, the years of life spent in good health, and biological resilience, the ability of living systems to recover, adapt, and rebuild.