Justin Rigby
Mistletoe is a parasitic organism that inhabits many different tree species in North America. One of the most common mistletoe species is the Oak Mistletoe (Phoradendron villosum) which inhabits a few different oak species in Northern/Central California. They grow in large green clumps and on the trees and produce white berries in the fall and winter seasons. These berries provide a large source of food for various frugivores during the cold winter months. Previously, they have been shown by Janis Dickinson (Cornell University) to be the only source of food […]
Eric Chen
Lately, we have witnessed increased interest in the study of representations of symmetric groups, and in particular, in their projective representations. In a classic paper, I. Schur introduced what are now known as Schur Q-functions in order to calculate these projective characters; combinatorial formulas for these characters are also available in the early works of D. Littlewood and A. Richardson. On the other hand, the Schur Q-functions admit a natural Hopf algebra structure paralleling the classical case of symmetric polynomials, and it is well known that the Hopf algebra approach […]
Amit Akula
While researchers have not been able to fully characterize the pathology of multiple sclerosis (MS), conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques have been the gold standard for the diagnosis and monitoring of MS (Guglielmetti, Lassmann). Using advanced MRI techniques, such as diffusion weighted imaging, and specifically spherical deconvolution tractography to image the brains neural tracts, recent studies have furthered MRIs predictive capabilities to leverage the brains connectivity to develop a composite MRI-based measure of motor network integrity that appears to predict disability substantially better than conventional non-network based MRI measures […]
Kenneth Han
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 […]
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 […]
Cee Gould
This summer, I will be conducting research on an astronomy project involving the data reduction and analytical characterization of several Hubble images of edge-on protoplanetary disks (dust around newly formed stars). This is a topic of interest since the study of pre-planetary systems lends clues to the still unsolved mysteries of the formation of planetary bodies, as well as life in the universe. Comparing high-resolution scattered light images of edge-on diskswith synthetic images from radiative transfer modeling is a powerfulapproach to constrain the disk mass, structure and dust content. By […]
Kirk Duran
Superconductors are materials that exhibit the phenomenon of zero electrical resistance below a certain temperature. Some pure metals are superconductors, but only at very low temperatures. But over the last few decades some interesting materials have been discovered that super-conduct at high temperatures, up to about 200C. This is still far below room temperature, but if we can understand these materials it may be possible to engineer even room-temperature superconductors. However, many aspects of hightemperature superconductors are still unknown, including how the other properties of these materials are related to […]
Leo Steinmetz
Cosmic inflation is a theory that expands on the Big Bang model of the early universe to explain some confusing astrophysical observations. A major next step for physical cosmology is to find direct evidence of inflation. Theoretical cosmologists predict that inflation left patterns in the oldest light in the universe, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), so the CMB measurement community is attempting to detect and characterize these patterns with a new generation of CMB telescopes such as LiteBIRD and CMB-S4. In order to detect this pattern we need to develop […]
Charles Li
Flame retardants are a diverse group of chemicals designed to slow down or prevent the spread of fire. Exposure to these compounds, however, is associated with adverseand often irreversibledevelopmental, reproductive and carcinogenic consequences. Despite the prevalence of flame retardants in the furniture, electronics, and clothing industries, little is known about their mechanisms of action at the cellular and molecular level. This project serves to define the chemical effects of flame retardants in classic human cell culture models. The first part of this endeavor will evaluate the toxicity of major categories […]
Logan Rudd
The LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter experiment is currently investigating the use of PTFE (Polytetraflouroethylene) best known as Teflon, for the internal walls of its liquid xenon detector, due to its high reflectivity for 175 nm light. In order to streamline research and development of the PTFE to be used in the detector, a new apparatus is currently being developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to quickly measure the relative reflectivity of multiple samples of PTFE against 175 nm light in liquid xenon. My goals for the summer are to aid in […]