I am a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Awardee (NIH/NIDCR) and MOSAIC scholar. I am pursuing my postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus where I study the function of chromatin modifiers in craniofacial development.

I earned my PhD from the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN in the lab of Dr. Jennifer J. Westendorf where I investigated the functional roles of the histone deacetylase, HDAC3, during chondrocyte maturation and endochondral bone formation (Carpio et al, Connect Tissue Res, 2017) (Carpio et al, Science Signaling, 2016).

Following my graduate studies, I joined the lab of Dr. Kristin Artinger in the Department of Craniofacial Development at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO. My current work focuses on two paralog histone methyltransferases, PRDM3 and PRDM16, and their functions during neural crest cell differentiation to cartilage and bone during the formation the craniofacial skeleton. Using both zebrafish and mouse models, I have found that these paralogs share convergent and divergent roles in vertebrate craniofacial development (Shull et al, Dev Bio 2020). Recently, I have found that these two paralogs function antagonistically of one another to facilitate cranial neural crest cell chondrocyte differentiation and maturation by regulating temporal and spatial Wnt/beta-catenin transcriptional activity (Shull et al, Development 2022).

The vision of my research program is to understand the hierarchal regulation of gene regulatory networks and signaling modules by chromatin remodelers. My research program will uniquely combine multiple animal model systems as well as next generation sequencing tools to dissect new mechanisms of transcriptional and epigenetic regulation during the crucial stages of cartilage and bone formation during craniofacial development.