Cristiana Martinez

##Lab
Doing rotations

##Research Interests
I am interested in plant metabolism and metabolic engineering of plant systems specifically at the intersection of plants and human health (discovering and producing medicinal compounds and improving nutritional content in crops). 

##Quick Bio
I joined a lab studying plant immune responses in my freshman year of college and absolutely fell in love with plant research. I stayed in that lab for the remainder of my undergraduate. I studied a protein involved in salicylic acid mediated immune responses under abiotic by using Arabidopsis mutant knockouts. I hope in the future that my work will help improve human health by producing crops that are more resilient and have better nutritional content as well as discovering new medicinal compounds that can address health conditions with no treatment or are better alternatives to current treatments. In 10 years, I hope to be a professor a large institution so I can teach while also running a lab and mentoring graduate students. On a Saturday afternoon, I most likely reading while cuddling with my cat Meeko.