ABOUT VERNA

I am currently a PhD candidate in Dr. Aaron T. Smith's lab at UMBC in Baltimore, Maryland. My training is in structural biology with specialization in X-ray crystallography, amongst other molecular biology and biochemical techniques. 

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I first became interested in scientific illustration during my first year graduate school courseds. As a visual thinker, I found that my favorite mode of learning was through drawing diagrams of subcellular organelles, signal transduction cascades, and workflow of common experimental techniques. My propensity for visual communication was a natural fit with my chosen field of study: structural biology is all about visualizing biological macromolecules in order to explore what structures reveal about function. 

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I have spent the last few years in graduate school teaching myself Adobe Illustrator to design figures for papers, posters and presentations as a means to communicate my research to a diverse audience. I also have extensive experience in working with both protein models and protein structures in Chimera.