Christina's background is in molecular biology, evolution, and microbial ecology. For her Master's thesis she analyzed an outer-membrane cytochrome found in iron-oxidizing bacteria of deep sea hydrothermal vent communities using shot-gun metagenomic data. Her current research interests are on the relationships between microbe, host, and the environment and how to best represent this using 'omics data and machine learning techniques. Her goal as a National Library of Medicine (NLM) Fellow is to gain computationl skills to better answer any biological question of interest.