Justin is currently a postdoc working with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study an overlooked class of small peptides that are conserved in humans. Additionally, he is using novel biochemical approaches to uncover basic mechanisms of cell-cell communication and is developing tools to improve gene-editing techniques in Drosophila.
His scientific expertise is in genetics, developmental biology, and cell biology and he has lab experience working with three model organisms – Arabidopsis, Zebrafish, and Drosophila. These experiences have given him routine skills in genetic crosses, dissection, confocal microscopy, molecular cloning, and biochemical techniques. Furthermore, he has experience applying large-scale techniques such as next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry.