I earned my BSc degree in Biology from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine. During my academic career, I gained international exposure through internships in plant biotechnology at UJEP in the Czech Republic and neurobiology at Lund University in Sweden. For my master’s research, I am focusing on the functional validation of regulatory regions associated with the vgll3 gene using zebrafish GFP-reporter gene assays to study the effect of non-coding variation on the onset of puberty in Atlantic salmon. Outside of the lab, I am passionate about environmental activism and foraging, which translates into my interests in ethical aquaculture and conservation. My broader scientific interests include ethology, evolutionary biology, marine mammals, epigenetics, and the genetic/hormonal basis of life history traits, especially sex determination and behavioral ecology.