Krystal Allen-Worthington

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mark Roberson
Current Position: Veterinarian Medical Officer, NIMH

Brief Biography
Krystal was fascinated by science and medicine at an early age and combined that with a love of animals which drove her to pursue Veterinary Medicine. While studying at her undergraduate institution, she rediscovered her passion for science and decided that she wanted to do research as well. It was then that Krystal decided to apply to the Combined Degree Program at Cornell. One of the reasons she deiced to pursue the Combined DVM/PhD Degree Program was because she was passionate about science and medicine and believed that taking a comparative approach across all species will lead us to insights and discoveries that might otherwise be missed by a single-species approach. She would like to work in translational medicine, helping to bridge the gap between academic research and future medical treatments whether those treatments are aimed at helping animals or humans. While she pursued her dual degrees, Krystal felt that her veterinary training helped to inform her approach to research questions, allowing her to envious realistic endpoints and to keep her studies relevant to our current understanding of physiology. Krystal enjoys investigating the role of the GnRH receptor in the neuroendocrine signaling pathways regulating reproduction in mammals, reading, dancing, and practicing her orthopedic exam skills on a very tolerant pet cat. 

Education
PhD, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, 2012
DVM, Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, 2010
BS in Animal Science from Cal Poly Pomona

Publications & Presentations
Jianjun Xie, Krystal H. Allen, Amy Marguet, Kathie A. Berghorn,Stuart P. Bliss, Amy M. Navratil, Jun Lin Guan and Mark S. Roberson. Analysis of the calcium-dependent regulation of proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 by gonadotropin-releasing hormone. Mol Endocrinol. 2008 Oct;22(10):2322-35. doi: 10.1210/me.2008-0061. Epub 2008 Jul 17. PubMed PMID: 18635666; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2582532.

Poster Presented at Graduate Student Recruitment 2005, and at the Vertebrate Genomics Symposium 2005: "Pyk2 Activation in Response to GnRH and Interactions with Calmodulin", Krystal Allen, Jianjun Xie, Kathie Berghorn, and Mark Roberson