HISTORY

I grew up in a small town with my father's grade school teachers, and I learned early on to find lessons in everything around me — construction, classical and computer-aided drafting, and, more painfully, the hardships of addiction and depression. As I got older, I became consumed by a single question: what is a chemical imbalance? It seemed to be at the root of so much of the pain my life had carried.

Armed with an innate artistic ability and the skills I was steadily building, I developed my own therapeutic approach to conceptualizing through art. The opportunities that followed brought real success — and carried me further than I could have imagined. There were times when I was submerged in some of the deepest pain I have ever known, and when doctors offered what they called "pain management," I lost myself in it. But I found a light deep within — one that required no prescription. It was my art. My passion. The thing that drives me.

As I fought my way out, I was rendering 3D images of synthetic micelles for targeted therapeutic delivery in cancer research, helping researchers conceptually visualize expressed ligands, GFP markers attached to ligand overexpression, and the assimilation of folate-affinity micelles as vehicles for therapeutic transport and fluorescent imaging. I had something to focus on besides the pain.

Those images drew me deeper into the language of analytical data. My curiosity ignited. Then physical setbacks stopped me in my tracks — I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. Through paralysis, renewed pain management, and countless physical therapy sessions, I kept moving forward, determined to understand what was happening inside my own body.

My next major opportunity came as a conceptual piece in a collaborative capstone project with Dr. Sivanthian's micro-physics team at UIC. We developed a portable micro-urinary analysis assay for stage III clinical testing — a wireless device designed to send patient data to physicians in remote locations.

Then another paralyzing event occurred, sidelining me for three months. Through my surgeries, I stayed in contact with my mentor, Dr. Malchow. I read research papers from my recovery bed and created an independent artwork depicting pH flux in extracellular space, illustrating a breakthrough ATP finding emerging from his research. With time and therapy, I recovered — though not entirely. I was left with reduced sensation and partial paralysis in my left foot, a condition called deafferentation.

In that season of pain and fortitude, something extraordinary happened. As I stood back and looked at my work, I realized I had stopped reaching for the prescription bottles. Overcoming that dependence was one of the hardest personal battles of my life. And from that place, another transcendence began — one where cannabis quietly replaced pharmaceutical pain management and cast a new, calming light over everything. It renewed my focus and solidified my goal: to become a researcher specializing in biomedical visualization.

Opportunities came quickly after that, almost all at once. I worked closely with colleagues in Dr. Doug Feinstein's lab on neuro-inflammation pathways linked to Alzheimer's disease, collaborating on a proof of concept using CLARITY techniques at UIC. I was offered a paid art class. I wrote to Stanford — with support from Dr. Feinstein and Dr. Malchow — to apply for an internship in CLARITY, a powerful technique that renders biological tissue transparent for enhanced 3D imaging using light sheet microscopy. I used the earnings from the art class to fund the entire internship myself. Simultaneously, I was invited to guest lecture at the Art Institute of Chicago, and I joined a neuroscience committee to animate the diffusion of an acute anti-inflammatory drug for TBI patients — a project that placed second in a nationwide come-to-market competition.

After completing this body of work at UIC, I was welcomed into the Heidi Hamm Lab at Vanderbilt University. Following my first visit, I wrote an operational expenditure scope of work that identified $250,000 in annual savings for the lab and was offered a position to platform the CLARITY protocol there. I traveled between Chicago and Nashville to establish the infrastructure needed to map granular cell activity correlated with GPCR mechanisms. Once the platform was in place, I successfully acquired global vascular images under the hypothesis that morphological changes correlate with granule cell degradation in the cerebellum — a proof-of-concept that eliminated the need for multiple costly pieces of equipment by replacing them with a single, more capable system.

During my time at the Hamm Lab, a new opportunity emerged on the West Coast — a licensed cannabis extraction and production facility. I completed my Vanderbilt project and moved West.

I took to hemp processing quickly and was promoted to lab manager in a short time, drawing on my extensive laboratory background. From processor to lab manager to my current role in the cannabis space, I have been profoundly challenged and equally fulfilled. Applying my academic research background, visualization expertise, and post-processing knowledge, I focus on cannabinoid and terpene profiling through chromatography, streamlining pre- and post-processing workflows, identifying production bottlenecks, and driving progress toward daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly output goals.

Through partnerships with Emerald Scientific, THAR Process, and Curaleaf, I have built trusting, integrity-driven business relationships. I have been recognized with MVPs, best-in-class distinctions, and cross-functional promotions — and I cherish every new relationship as a gift. Small wins with clients lead to larger wins for the industry.

Looking ahead, I plan to visually profile lab spaces in adherence to cGMP and EHS standards. Creating and communicating these environments can help mature the cannabis industry — paving the way for new cannabinoid discoveries, deeper understanding of entourage effects, and ultimately, the clinical exploration of cannabis as a tool for pain management, mood support, and longevity. My goal is to use everything I have built — molecular pharmacology, neuroscience, chemistry, physics, art, and engineering — to help tell that story in a way that educates, inspires, and changes lives.

Press

"WHY MULTIPLE GENERATIONS OF FAMILIES CHOOSE TO LIVE TOGETHER AND WHY IT’S NOT SUCH A BAD IDEA." — News Week.  CAROLINA BUIA.