My students and I aim to achieve a multi-scale understanding of the molecular organization of living systems. How do monomeric building blocks assemble to form macromolecules? and how do macromolecules give rise to organelles and cells? To address these questions, we develop chemical and biophysical tools to probe, manipulate, and re-program how cells communicate with one another. We then leverage these tools to gain insight into natural biology and to overcome roadblocks in the development of cell therapies and tissue engineered systems. Our current efforts are focused on understanding contact-dependent cell signaling mechanisms, including Notch signaling and synaptic transmission, and their downstream outcomes. I was born in San Jose, California and was the first in my family to go to college. I received a Ph.D. from Caltech in 2012 and trained with Roger Tsien as a post-doc at UC San Diego until 2015. Students from the lab have received several awards and honors, including the BME Thesis of the Year Award and the College of Engineering's Earle and Mildred Bailey Memorial Award, among others.