Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Andrew Song

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Chromosome instability (CIN), a form of genomic instability, is a hallmark of many human cancers. However, the exact mechanisms contributing to CIN in cancers are not completely understood. The centromere, a unique chromosomal domain required for kinetochore formation and faithful chromosome segregation, is a plausible source of CIN as its misregulation has been implicated to cause neo-centromere formation, dicentric behavior, and chromosome bridges, resulting in aneuploidy, genome rearrangements, and micronuclei. The centromere is epigenetically established across cell generations by CENP-A, a histone H3 variant. As the molecular foundation of centromere […]

Eena Kosik

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We live in a world of noise and therefore, one of the most important functions in the brain is the ability to make predictions. Prediction is the result of using previous expectations of our surroundings to create possible interpretations of this noise. Because of the complexity of prediction, it makes sense that it has very complicated neural correlates in the brain. The literature shows mixed understandings of the neural mechanisms of prediction when paired with other factors, such as behavioral relevance. Some scientists argue that there is a prediction suppression […]

Kenneth Han

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Current administration of chemotherapeutics lack specificity and have adverse effects to the body. Thus, to mitigate these effects, significant research has been done to attaching drugs to nanocarriers that range from gold to protein scaffolds. I will be working with protein based nanocarriers, derived from the tobacco mosaic virus to increase the efficacy of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin. The protein is genome free, which makes the drug carrier a harmless protein capsid. By attaching the drug to the protein via an acid labile linker, the drug will be cleaved from […]

Peter Alexander

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400 years after William Shakespeares death, debates on Elizabethan staging methods remain fresh. My SURF L&S research will explore the unknown mechanics Elizabethan staging. I will specifically do so by examining Elizabethan era resources (such as actual, annotated rehearsal scripts from Elizabethan theatre companies) on Shakespeares Henry IV, Part I. Henry IV, Part I stands as an anomaly amongst other Shakespearean plays because it does not adhere to the conventional scene-to-scene structure that most of the other Shakespearean plays follow. Unlike most scholars (who almost exclusively study conventionally structured plays), […]

Daniel Srole

With our overuse of antibiotics and the resulting decline in their effectiveness, it has become increasingly important to understand their mechanisms of action. Many antibiotics act on harmful bacteria by targeting ribosomal processes and disrupting the translation from mRNA to proteins, thereby interrupting gene expression. The cells abilities to function and reproduce are thereby disrupted, and we observe the desired effects of antibiotics rather quickly. Macrolides are a class of antibiotic that works in this way. The binding site for these molecules in prokaryotes is highly conserved in eukaryotes. With […]

Angela Shiau

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Organometallic transition metal chemistry is an important cornerstone of chemical research, as studies have led to the development of important catalysts and deeper understanding in the bonding of elements in the entire periodic table. Analogous chemistry with the actinide elements, however, has been relatively unexplored in comparison. Contributing to this lack of experimental work, this project aims to deepen the understanding of guanidinate-supported actinide complexes. Recently, I have synthesized and structurally characterized thorium(IV) and uranium (IV) guanidinate platforms. From these platforms, I accessed the first uranium (III) guanidinate complex. Interesting […]

Elliott Chien

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Astrocytes, the star-shaped glial cells of the central nervous system, are necessary for synapse formation, which makes the role of astrocytes in brain development particularly interesting as autism and schizophrenia are fundamentally diseases of circuit and synapse formation. Molecular communication between astrocytes and microglia, a second type of glial cell, is an emerging mechanism explaining synapse development and pruning in the central nervous system. Previous work in the lab has found that astrocytes secrete an immune signaling molecule called Interleukin-33 (IL-33) during brain development, and that this molecule acts as […]

Kevin Nuckolls

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Carbon-based nanomaterials have been the focus of a myriad of research endeavors within the field of Condensed Matter and Materials Physics for the past few decades. Certain allotropes of carbon, such as single-layer graphene, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), and spherical carbon fullerene, have been thoroughly explored in their electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. These forms of carbon have exhibited extremely interesting physical properties, such as high carrier mobility, high tensile and elastic strength, and superconductivity. However, as recently as 2010, a new form of carbon has been discovered known as […]

Ramin Khajeh

Self-assembly is the spontaneous organization of components into ordered structure, ubiquitous in materials science and biology. Many essential structures in biology, such as the ribosome or virus shells, organize themselves into ordered structures with surprisingly high efficiency. Despite progress, there is not a comprehensive theory to predict the most likely structure based on individual components in a self-assembling material. Moreover, many important examples of self-assembly occur far from thermodynamic equilibrium. In spite of this, modeling efforts have overwhelmingly focused on equilibrium properties of self-assembly. Aided by theory and computer simulations, […]

Libby Perfitt

I am investigating the effects of singing on speech in geriatric voice. In my work as vocal coach I have perceived changes in students speaking voices alongside their advancements as singers. Scientifically, it has been noted that the voice undergoes many changes with age, most of which occur more intensely after 65 years of age in men and after menopause in women. Academically, I hope to build on existing research to discover more specifically what scientific factors of speech can be improved through singing. To this end, I am conducting […]