Ms. Buchalski received her B.S. in Forensic Science in 2013 from Bay Path University with minors in Math and Chemistry. She was recruited to UAB as a graduate student and began her graduate work with Dr. Ross Holmes in the Urology Research Group in 2014. The Urology Research Group focuses on a rare metabolic disorder called Primary Hyperoxaluria. This family of inborn errors of glyoxylate metabolism causes excessive production of endogenous oxalate which in turn results in continuous kidney stone formation. In the course of her graduate studies she regularly carried out many biological techniques including; cell culture, small animal handling/surgery, Western blots, PCR, and various enzyme assays. The Urology Research Group utilizes three IC/MS instruments, HPLC-ECD, and HPLC-UV to measure small organic acids and Ms. Buchalski was tasked with performing sample preparation, instrument maintenance, and data analysis to help further the understanding of oxalate formation.
In 2018 Ms. Buchalski joined MSP-SF with Dr. James Mobley as a mentor in collaboration with the Urology Research Group to finish her graduate studies. Under the guidance of Dr. Mobley Ms. Buchalski used a geLC/MS approach to investigate changes in the proteome between Primary Hyperoxaluria model mice and WT mice. In the course of this project she employed multiple proteomic applications ranging from sample preparation, MS, statistical analysis, to proteomics based bioinformatics.