Matt was an undergraduate research student from 2016 to May of 2018 when he graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Department of Biological Sciences here at the University at Albany.

He made some early contributions to understanding p53 enhancer function, specifically whether enhancers in the p53 network have p53-independent activities or if they are solely used for stress-dependent regulatory control. He presented his work at the 2018 Biology Undergraduate Research Symposium.