After receiving his MSc investigating the biophysical mechanism of styrene monooxygenase from San Francisco State University, Eliot was awarded a DAAD Research Fellowship to begin research on the palmitoylation of ADAP, an adaptor protein involved in integrin activation and T cell adhesion. His main focus of research is the role posttranslational lipid modification plays during "inside-out" signaling, as well as the nature and mechanism of the palmitoyl acyltransferase responsible for this regulatory process.