Ryan is currently a student at the University of Rochester in New York. During his internship Klessig lab, Ryan worked under the supervision of jis mentor post-doctoral associate Corina Vlot. While at the BTI, Ryan researched methyl salicylate esterases and their roles in pathogen defense in Arabidopsis. For this project, he learned PCR, RT-PCR, inncolations, tissue culture, and RNA extraction.