Patrick Forrester

In the past ten years, scientific interest has grown in the field of two dimensional self-assembled molecular structures because of their promise for flexible nanoscale electronic applications including single molecule sensing, improved photovoltaics, and organic light-emitting diodes. Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) are strong candidates for these applications by virtue of their mechanical and thermal stability, transparency to visible light, and ease of large scale production, which could potentially revolutionize electronics and alternative energy. Currently, two-dimensional COF synthesis is not well understood and relies heavily on trial and error, and there […]

Ian Ferguson

In the eye, Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) cells are important in maintaining the health of photoreceptor cells. RPE defects can lead to early photoreceptor cell death which is linked to several vision disorders, including Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). The Gong Laboratory has previously linked the protein NHE8, a proton/sodium ion transporter mostly localized to protein secretory pathways, to retinal degeneration that is associated with RPE and photoreceptor cell loss. It is hypothesized that NHE8 mutant proteins lose the ability to exchange protons and sodium ions in intracellular compartments or vesicles, […]

Peter Alexander

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), […]

Jacqueline Woo

My research aims to examine the development of joint attention in infants. Joint visual attention (JVA) refers to the ability to share attention to a common object with another partner and is vital to an infants capacity to learn, as it facilitates various kinds of communication. JVA has been connected to both language and social-emotional development. My study explores two major issues in the development of joint visual attention. First, it investigates what brings about infants increased ability of responding to and initiating joint attention beginning the second year of […]

Ryan Serpa

My research attempts to examine the roles of race, suburbanization, and region in the context of San Francisco Bay Area art production. Specifically, I will look to the artwork of David Park and Richard Diebenkorn, two members of the prominent Bay Area Figurative School. Bay Area Figurative art developed during the 1950s and 60s, a period of intense development in the Bay Area that coincided with increased migration of Black residents after World War II. However, these developments did not occur on equal footing. Home loan discrimination on the basis […]

Jordan Said

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) is a highly conserved cellular process responsible for nutrient uptake and membrane recycling in eukaryotic cells. After initiation, clathrin and adaptor proteins are recruited to form a clathrin-coated pit, which ultimately matures into a vesicle that is cleaved from the membrane by the concerted efforts of multiple proteins. Several of these endocytic proteins possess a conserved Bin-Amphiphysin-Rvs (BAR) domain, a protein element that can both sense and generate membrane curvature. One of the key proteins in mammalian clathrin-mediated endocytosis is sorting nexin-9 (SNX9), a protein involved in […]

Sally Littlefield

My summer research seeks to understand how American culture conceives of adolescent female sexuality through analyzing popular film. Looking at American teen films from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, I will explore when, how, and by whom it is considered acceptable or problematic for teenaged women to engage with their sexuality. Once I’ve conducted a thorough film analysis, I’ll be able to explore what effects these cultural beliefs have on teenaged girls through collecting oral histories of young women in the fall. My finished project will tie these two pieces […]

Joseph Oh

The purpose of my research is to investigate the neurobiological basis of sleep disturbances in humans using neurodegenerative conditions associated with signature patterns of sleep changes as a model. Alzheimers Disease (AD), Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) are the most frequent tauopathies, neurodegenerative conditions associated with accumulation of misfolded tau protein in selective brain areas. Despite coursing with neuronal loss and accumulation of misfolded tau inclusions, these conditions involve different brain areas and cause distinctive clinicopathological features. In all these diseases, patient experience disturbances in sleep/wake pattern […]

Sulynn Miao

My research project is a continuation of research already being done by the Berkeley Early Learning Lab that has sought to understand children with autism spectrum disorder’s (ASD) abilities to make statistical inferences. This ability is important because it allows typically developing children to make generalizations about the world and learn, and if hindered in children with ASD, could have cascading consequences in learning and development. ASD is a disorder that the world still does not know much about, therefore research is of the utmost importance to help develop better […]

Julie Lee

According to the author herself, Oh Jung-hees 1981 short story collection (“The Yard of Childhood”) took the form of a novel sequence when she rearranged eight of her previously published stories by protagonist age. The sequence, however unplanned, elegiacally traces the compressed post-war development of South Korea in the 1950s-70sall through the anonymous coming-of-age story of an impoverished girl who becomes an alienated housewife haunted by her past. My research, then, engages in a close reading of Oh through the lens of literary trauma theory, examining how the psychological process […]