I completed my undergraduate degree in biology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. I began work on my Master’s degree in biology in the Fall of 2009. Working under Dr. Ryals, I will be examining the effects of lithium and valproic acid on the glycosylation and phosphorylation of proteins in Tetrahymena patula. Lithium and valproic acid are used in the treatment of bipolar disorder in humans. The precise mechanism(s) by which these substances work is not well understood. T. patula, a single-celled eukaryote, responds to lithium and valproic acid by undergoing a de-differentiation process and may therefore prove to be ideal as a model system for the elucidation of the mechanisms by which lithium and valproic acid act in higher organisms.