Project: 
One-compound, one-islet: A High-throughput Platform for Small-molecule Discovery

►Where are you from originally, and where did you go to school?

Houston,Houston, TX; University of Houston (B.S. 1995).
Cambridge, MA; Harvard University (Ph.D. 2001).

►What is your current position?

Institute Scientist, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

►Why did you decide to become a researcher?

After returning to college (long story), I was interested in astronomy, but also journeyed nearer to computer science during my studies, then eventually selected biochemistry as an avenue. Not doing research in some area was never a question.

►What is the “Big Picture” of what you study?

Understanding relationship of molecular-level events (genomic variants, protein-protein and protein-small-molecule interactions, etc.) with systems-level events (selection/evolution, pathways, disease mitigation by drugs).

►What is your favorite aspect of your research?

Getting up every day and getting to think about cool, hard problems in an unfettered way.

► What do you hope to achieve with your research?

A new model of systems chemical biology that is conceptually closer to how biological systems actually behave.