Natalie Culler

Background

About Natalie Culler

Becoming passionate about bacteria and microorganisms in middle school wasn't exactly a hot trend the cool kids were following. Nonetheless, I wouldn't have changed a single thing in this story. I was lucky enough to have an aunt who worked in a clinical microbiology lab and was willing to take me under her wing for my science fair project. This experiment, identifying the best way to clean bacteria from cutting boards, though rudimentary, kickstarted what I did not know would be the rest of my career. I continued to follow down this path and here I am, a professional microbiologist, happier than ever. My studies have lead me down various paths of food safety, genomic analysis, epidemiology and more. I am still unsure of which specificity I wish to delve into, but that opens my horizons vastly. I have spent the past 6 months in the Lee research lab in the UVM Microbiology and Molecular Genetics department, learning wet lab practices such as qPCR, RNA extraction, Sanger Sequencing. I am a quick-learning individual, passionate about expanding my knowledge and gaining useful experience in a laboratory setting. I hope to one day, once I have a more specified interest, continue my education in a PhD program.