Todd Kimball

Todd Kimball received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Wittenberg in Springfield, Ohio in 2006. He then moved to the Bluegrass State to work as a clinical laboratory scientist at the University of Kentucky. After his stint in the clinical laboratory, Todd switched to research science by joining the Vondriska lab as a research tech in 2011. Through the Vondriska lab, Todd began to learn, apply, and appreciate the complexities of epigenetic mechanisms underlying heart disease. In 2016, Todd entered the UCLA Integrative Biology and Physiology Master’s program and was mentored by Dr. Stephanie White. He studied the transcription factor FoxP2 in a songbird model, Zebra finch, and how its regulation correlates to the vocal learning phenotype. Try as he may, he never learned how to sing as well as those orange-cheeked birds. After receiving his master’s, Todd entered the MCIP doctoral program at UCLA and rejoined the Vondriska lab. Todd recognizes how fortunate he is to be working in such as collaborative environment and looks forward to continuing to contribute to the fascinating projects that got him motivated and enthusiastic about research science so many years ago.