Porter Hall

Background

About Porter Hall

I recently completed the Biophysics Program at Cornell University under the supervision of Dr. Michelle Wang. There, I completed a largely independent project investigating the outcomes of molecular collisions between RNA polymerase and gene editing tools, ultimately engineering a novel guide RNA which aims to improve editing efficiency. This resulted in a first author publication in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology as well as a patent on our invention.Next I embarked on a project that employs mechanistic genomics in order to study how molecular machines affect DNA mechanics, and how these mechanics in turn affect their function in living cells. I am currently preparing a manuscript related to this project.I ultimately aim to use my expertise in the mechanics of basic processes involving DNA gained through single-molecule techniques and from a genome wide lens to understand how the complex symphony of molecules in our nucleus make life possible.