Shahrzad Abbassi-Rahbar
Thalassemia is a disease common to 60 countries worldwide, with high prevalence in Middle Eastern countries. The Iranian population consists of many who exhibit the beta-thalassemia hemoglobinopathy, which reduces red blood cells ability to carry oxygen, and even more who are carriers of this life-threatening disease. In the past, most of the children born with beta-thalassemia failed to survive during the first decade of life. Medical advances have recognized that placental and umbilical cord blood of a newborn is a rich source of blood stem cells, which can replace the […]
Simmie L. Foster
Simmie’s research project is situated at the intersection of cell biology, immunology and molecular biology in the important field of bacterial pathogenesis. Understanding the interaction of intracellular pathogens with mammalian systems is critical for preventing and treating a number of diseases that pose a major challenge to the biomedical community. Specifically, Simmie will focus on the way in which a protein produced by a particular intracellular pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes, is degraded in the cytosol of the host cell. By illuminating the complexity of the host-parasite interaction in this instance, Simmie’s […]
Benjamin M. Chen
Benjamin plans to implement an algorithm for quantitative analysis of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) that will improve the specificity of the calculated levels of cellular metabolites such as choline, creatine, N-acetylaspartate and myo-inositol. This information is critical for predicting tumor type and grade, tailoring treatment protocols to individual patients, and distinguishing between treatment effects and recurrent tumors. The current method of estimating metabolite concentration is not sufficient when using acquisition parameters that give complicated spectra. A least squares method, developed by Provencher et. al., is more accurate. Benjamin will […]
David H. Nguyen
Activation of the proto-oncogene c-Src, a tyrosine kinase, is evident in major cancers such as breast and colon. C-Src activates substrates that serve important roles in controlling growth, survival and motility of cells. Activation of c-Src is known to cause transformation, the process by which normal cells become cancerous. David seeks to elucidate how v-Src, a viral constitutively active form of c-Src, regulates Protein Kinase Cz (PKCz), which is a protein involved in control of growth and survival. The Martin lab has shown that v-Src can tyrosine-phosphorylate PKCz and that […]
Mingen (Jason) Liu
In his project, Jason intends to examine the possibility of site-targeting or HR in the PSY gene of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii a unicellular alga and a model organism for studying photosynthesis. He will generate mutant populations through transformations with a plasmid containing a defective copy of the PSY gene and will then screen for successful gene-disruption by selecting for a white phenotype and antibiotic resistance. Further experiments will examine the locus of recombination, enabling design of new plasmids to target mutagenesis of other genes for an efficient and cost-effective method of […]
Melissa M. Adams
Through a series of carefully designed experiments with Kangaroo Rats (Dipotomys mirriami), Melissa’s Cognitive Science Senior Honors Thesis will test her hypothesis that these rodents’ capacity to perform “transitive inference” tasks constitutes true reasoning and relies on the same neural structures as less abstract forms of reasoning. A long history of philosophical thought views human reason as unique in and apart from nature. In contrast, evolutionary theory suggests that our reasoning abilities are based on the requirements of the natural environment in which they evolved and, furthermore, that there should […]
Gloria Brar
Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) is a natural compound found in Brassica vegetables, such as broccoli and cabbage; this compound has been shown to arrest the growth of breast cancer cells in a mechanism that seems to involve several critical cell cycle proteins. Gloria’s Molecular & Cell Biology Senior Honors Thesis project will investigate the changes in subcellular localization of these proteins. This data will help characterize the mechanism of I3C-induced breast cancer cell growth arrest and will be useful in evaluating the mechanisms and therapeutic promise of certain I3C derivatives. In addition, […]
Crystal Liu
The aim of Crystal’s project – the culmination of which will constitute her senior honors thesis in political science – is to discuss whether (and more importantly how) preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) should be regulated. Crystal will be traveling to Washington, DC to address whether the objections behind PGD can be practically dealt with through various types of regulation. By attending meetings for the President’s Council on Bioethics and analyzing their most recent report, “Reproduction & Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies,” Crystal will be assessing the effectiveness of using […]
Joseph J. Lim
Current Bio: Since graduation, Joseph completed his PhD at MIT and postdoc at Stanford. He started a tenure-track faculty career at the University of Southern California, and is leading the Cognitive Learning for Vision and Robotics (CLVR) lab. He works on teaching robots to learn and solve complex physical tasks, such as furniture assembly. Haas Scholars Project: Object recognition is a major unsolved problem in Computer Vision. The main goal is for computers to detect and to recognize objects in the given images and videos. In this project, contours will […]
Vanessa Voss
The goal of this project is to expand our understanding of the role social status plays in the etiology of depression. In humans, there is a strong inverse relationship between social status and depression. Those at the top of their social hierarchy experience less depression compared to those at the bottom. Our laboratory has developed a basic animal model which will allow us to explore the causal relationships between social status and depression. Vanessa will be tracking rats before, during and after hierarchy formation to determine which comes first, the […]