Benjamin Capinski
The field of atomic physics studies the behavior of atoms, focusing on their fundamental properties and interactions. Most research in ultracold atomic physics has concentrated on alkali and alkali earth metals due to the simplicity of laser cooling them. Until recently, this has left most of the periodic table unexplored in the ultracold regime. By performing laser cooling in a metastable state, the E8 experiment in Prof. Dan Stamper-Kurn’s group is the first in the world to laser cool titanium atoms, with plans for further cooling to quantum degeneracy. The […]
Rylee Chaisongkram
Over generations, there has been a steady decline in reproductive rates. One in 6 adults across the world experience infertility, with stress contributing substantially to this decline. While studies highlight stress-related health risks, its specific impact on the reproductive system at the brain level remains unclear. This project will explore the connection between stress and the neuroendocrine regulation of female reproductive function, with a particular focus on kisspeptin (Kp) neurons in the posterodorsal medial amygdala (MePD) region of the brain. Through the use of transgenic mouse models, immunohistochemistry, and viral […]
Laura Cho
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by repetitive behaviors, social communication deficits, and sensory processing difficulties. Highly heritable and male-biased, ASD is frequently comorbid with other psychiatric disorders, with 71% of ASD-affected children meeting criteria for a concurrent condition and 41% having 2 or more disorders. These attributes potentially implicate sex-interacting, heritable genetic variants in transdiagnostically manifesting psychiatric traits. I will investigate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with sex-differentiated effect size for ASD, and test for enrichment in association signal for 8 other psychiatric disorders, as compared to […]
Theodore Coffey
Small molecule drugs function by binding to a target protein in a binding pocket, inhibiting or changing the protein’s activity, thereby creating a therapeutic effect. Finding novel protein binders is challenging because many potential binding pockets remain uncharacterized. Probes with a covalent warhead have been used to find binding pockets since the probes can covalently bond to amino acid residues. Enantiomeric probe pairs have recently been used to identify stereoselective binding pockets which tend to be more therapeutically relevant. I hypothesize that asymmetric gold catalysis can be used to synthesize […]
Nick Yunqi Zhang
Representing the world in abstraction, numbers are central to humans as they are constantly informing our judgments and decisions. Every day, we use numbers to symbol quantities, index objects, and apply all sorts of calculations to solve problems. The existing literature has long established the ability to mentally represent approximate numerosity as a core knowledge, an intuition that is supported by the Approximate Number System (Xu & Spelke, 2000). While past studies have identified some key behavioral and neural signatures of number processing (Odic & Starr, 2018), its neurocognitive development […]
Qiyue Zhao
The 1980s witnessed the rise of Women’s Studies in China as a critical response to previous female construction defined by ungendered socialist labor. Female corporeality became a charged field for allegory, anticipation, and criticism. This change projected onto the cinematic screen and brought new female figures beyond associations with the historically dominant socialist developmental propaganda. However, instead of receding into the background, such developmentalism enjoyed a neoliberal and capitalistic transformation. What complicated the screen was the entanglement between the heterogeneous representations of female liberation and an alternative force of neoliberal […]
Grayce Yang
Autophagy is a crucial cellular mechanism that maintains homeostasis by forming an organelle known as an autophagosome. This double-membraned structure, originating from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), encapsulates and degrades cellular components, facilitating cellular survival under stress conditions such as organelle dysfunction and protein aggregation. Impairments in this process are associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.This project aims to explore the role of the ATG13/101 subcomplex in initiating autophagy, with a particular focus on its membrane-binding function, which is critical for autophagosome formation.Through detailed analysis, we seek to understand […]
Megan Yao
As the world is awash with a global wave of women’s rights crises, it has become more crucial than ever for us modern-day feminists to retrospect upon our predecessors’ endeavors, among whom are the First Wave Feminists. When studying the First Wave, textual materials are the most integral of any intellectual discussions. However, current research is largely limited to the individual literary works, while the feminist journals – the main medium through which the most active feminists collectively worded their activism – is profusely under-studied. My project seeks to answer […]
Kevin Yao
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is one of the most common diseases among American adults. As one of the essential organs to maintain life, deprived renal functions lead to disruptions of homeostasis and fatal failures of the body. The prevalence of CKD is associated closely with the lack of renal regeneration capacity in the adult human body. However, recent study has shown that this inability of regeneration is not innate but an acquired process in mammals like humans. Many newborn mammals are reported to have full renal regeneration capacity while such […]
Roger Yu
Secular chaos has been identified as a factor destabilizing celestial bodies such as Mercury, and the creation of hot Jupiters in extrasolar systems. “Secular” refers to the orbit-averaged motion of a planet – we study the motions of bodies not as point masses, but as interactions between massive elliptical wires. Secular theory dates back to the 18th century, but only in the modern era has it been realized that it can lead to chaos. This project aims to investigate secular chaos within an N-body planetary system. While 2-planet systems have […]