Mo Mao

Hepatitis B (Hep B) is a high risk infection that is disproportionately affecting Asian Americans up to date, though testing and vaccinations are available free to low-cost across multiple sites in San Francisco and the surrounding Area. Many studies have tried various community based methods to increase screening rate and number of diagnosed patients willing to accept treatment, yet they failed to address the reasons and solutions for the lack of initiatives of Asian Americans towards Hepatitis B. Therefore, this project aims to address the historical, political, and structural conditions […]

Aren Martinian

In the past few years, neural networks have gone from obscure to ubiquitous. This technology is shockingly versatile, but conceptually ill-understood: there is a large gap between practice and theory, and much has yet to even be conjectured. For example, scientists are baffled by the overfitting paradox. Overfitting is usually a problem when programmers model a complex system such as the brain. Programmers must base their model on finitely many examples of that system’s behavior. Traditionally, programs that perfectly replicate these examples forget the underlying system. Surprisingly, large neural networks […]

Erin Li

Acetaldehyde is a highly reactive carbonyl species (RCS) found in the human body as a result of partial alcohol metabolism (1). Increased acetaldehyde levels are often associated with pathologies such as alcoholic liver disease and Alzheimers (2). Despite its toxicity, tools for monitoring acetaldehyde in live specimen are underdeveloped, and current methods rely on the processing and destruction of the intact specimen. My project aims to develop a dye-based probe that utilizes chemical reactivity with acetaldehyde to convert a homoallylamine-functionalized dye platform into its aldehyde conjugate, resulting in a shift […]

Shuangyue Li

Embedded within the intricate tapestry of cardiovascular diseases lies the cornerstone of vascular health. Arteries are vital conduits responsible for delivering oxygenated blood away from the heart and to the body. It is known that Notch signaling is crucial for the mature development of vascular identity and network, and previous research on loss-of-function Notch receptors demonstrates impaired artery growth and remodeling. Previous research at the Wang lab has shown that pan-endothelial constitutive expression of Notch4 causes enlarged arteries, but it cannot exclude the role of hemodynamic perturbations. My summer project […]

Daven Lim

Genetic diversity has been widely associated with the adaptability and survival of populations, and extensive research has focused on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Despite also contributing substantially to genetic diversity, structural variation (SV) has been comparatively less studied. In particular, there has been little research that broadly surveys SV diversity and explores its relevance to conservation across the tree of life. This research aims to a) identify SVs that segregate within a single individual across diverse taxonomic groups, b) characterize the diversity, origin, and potential functional impact of SVs in […]

Matthew Liu

Understanding how and why proteins evolve is vital to grasping the fundamental biological processes governing everything from disease treatment to evolutionary biology. Classical sequence-based models of protein evolution make unrealistic assumptions ignoring behavior like coevolution of amino acids, which limits their explanatory power. Capturing such complex interactions requires a deep understanding of protein structure and how sites interact. To do this, my project introduces the first structure-based model of its kind for protein evolution, adapting models from protein design to contribute to a novel literature on deep models of protein […]

Anna Jacobowitz

Over one in five US adults currently live with psychiatric disorders, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and addiction. A third of which are unresponsive to antidepressant drugs, resulting in a large population still seeking effective treatment. Recent studies in the Kaufer Lab demonstrate that psychedelic therapy regenerates neural pathways in the brain and exhibits efficacy in treatment-resistant populations, offering a promising alternative. However, there are few studies that examine sex-specific effects on behavior and brain physiology with psychedelic treatment. To understand this, my project asks the question: is […]

Grace Jang

This project delves into the impact of political regimes on cross-border entrepreneurial activities. Understanding this nexus is pivotal, given that the interplay between democracy and capitalism significantly influences international businesses. Corporations, acting both as subjects of regulation and regulators themselves, are deeply affected by the regimes in their foreign operations and investments. Despite its significance, this intersection remains inadequately explored, particularly concerning multinational corporations (MNCs) and international new ventures (INVs). While extant studies generally find stable political environments as conducive to MNC performance, such political systems are either arbitrarily selected […]

Yasmine Kaki

My project focuses on the role family and its creation and extension through marriages played in the consolidation of political power for the ruling family of Tunisia under its Ottoman regency. Since the Ottomans allowed for a great degree of political autonomy for the Bey (the governor of Tunis), rather than appointing a Bey to the region, the Ottoman government allowed for a continuous hereditary ruling family to control Tunisia. I will be looking specifically at the Husaynid Dynasty reigning from 1705-1956 but bracketing my period of research with the […]

Dana Kim

My research focuses on developing and implementing advanced deep-learning models to significantly enhance the interpretative accuracy and efficiency of medical imaging, thereby improving disease diagnosis processes. This initiative addresses the urgent need for sophisticated diagnostic tools capable of managing complex diseases effectively and seeks to overcome the limitations associated with human-dependent analysis. The research utilizes a diverse array of medical images such as MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays as primary data for the training and refinement of algorithms. The research methodology is organized into distinct phases: Data Collection and Labeling, […]