Amy Zhong
Neurodegenerative disorders, caused by abnormal death of neurons, manifest in incurable and debilitating conditions. Ataxia, the loss of muscle coordination of voluntary movements, is a hallmark symptom of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinsons. Various genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have pointed to Tox3s crucial role in neurodegenerative diseases, but current knowledge on its relationship with ataxia is limited. Tox3 is a transcriptional coactivator that confers protective anti-apoptotic effects in the brain, with the highest level of expression in cerebellar Purkinje cells. Our preliminary data show that mice with Tox3 deletion show […]
Shaunak Modak
Observations have demonstrated that almost all large galaxies contain a supermassive black hole in their centers. Although supermassive black holes constitute only a small fraction of their host galaxys total mass, their mass correlates strongly with features of their host including morphology and galactic structure, so they have long been objects of interest for astrophysicists. The mass of a supermassive black hole can be estimated through studying stellar orbits within the galaxy. However, especially in the most massive elliptical galaxies, these dynamics can be extremely challenging to model. One promising […]
Mingyu Li
Neutrino-less double beta decay is a process that is forbidden in the current Standard Model of particle physics since it violates lepton number conservation. If observed, this type of decay can provide insight into fundamental neutrino properties, such as whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac fermions (i.e. whether they are their own anti-particles). This decay also provides information on the neutrino mass hierarchy and its mass scale. Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a leading experiment in this search and its successor, CUORE Upgrade with Particle ID (CUPID) […]
Maryn Sanders
The unique site of Antelope Valley River near Williams, California has for a few years been a place of interest and research because of the distinct sedimentary layering and the very regular pattern of hills and hollows. In the winter of 2017, a huge storm came through the site and induced four hundred landslides. Another storm then followed in the winter of 2019 at a much lesser degree of strength compared to the 2017 storm; however, it caused only about a hundred landslides, but all in new regions. The seemingly […]
Michelle Lee
If a nuclear weapon exploded in an urban environment, the effects would be catastrophic. Governments would want to quickly know what type of weapon it was, where it came from and who made it. One effect of the explosion is that it would expose many materials to large numbers of neutrons producing a variety of radioactive isotopes. When these isotopes decay, they produce characteristic gamma rays that allow them to be uniquely identified. My project will identify the radioactive species produced by neutron interactions with a wide variety of materials […]
Zoe Adams
It has been shown that tumors are not simply genetically homogeneous collections of cells, but rather growths of evolving, genetically diverse populations that typically arise from a single mutant cell. As this mutant cell proliferates, its daughter cells naturally pick up more mutations due to a variety of factors, creating genetic heterogeneity. More and more studies have been published analyzing the possible interactions of these varied populations, ultimately suggesting that there may be cooperation that influences tumor growth. My lab at UCSF has developed a system using a 4-color confetti […]
Nikhil Sahoo
In our research, we will use toric geometry to study the cohomological structure of complex Grassmannians. The cohomology ring of a Grassmannian varieties is described by the Littlewood-Richardson rule. One of the main open questions in Schubert calculus concerns the generalization of the Littlewood-Richardson rule to flag varieties. Such a generalization is highly desirable, because it is a manifestly positive formula that can be applied to other areas: in algebraic geometry, it helps describe complicated intersections; in representation theory, it helps to find irreducible, direct-sum decompositions of tensor products; in […]
Zihang Wang
My research topic is inspired by the recent discovery of some novel properties in superconductivity and mott-like insulating behavior of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). In general, there exist a variety of twisted systems that may exhibit similar behavior as TBG (such as -RuCl3). My goal is to test different twisted heterostructures optical and transport properties with a standardized exfoliation/ transfer method. Since making the twisted angle heterostructure is difficult to achieve accurately by hand, the first phase of my research is to motorize the transfer stage with full control of […]
Junhao Fan
In our research, we will use toric geometry to study the cohomological structure of complex Grassmannians. The cohomology ring of a Grassmannian varieties is described by the Littlewood-Richardson rule. One of the main open questions in Schubert calculus concerns the generalization of the Littlewood-Richardson rule to flag varieties. Such a generalization is highly desirable, because it is a manifestly positive formula that can be applied to other areas: in algebraic geometry, it helps describe complicated intersections; in representation theory, it helps to find irreducible, direct-sum decompositions of tensor products; in […]
Aimee Cortez
The soil microbial community is rich with bacteria that provide an abundant source of medically valuable natural antibiotics and pharmaceuticals. In particular, Streptomyces padanus possesses antimicrobial activity and produces actinomycin D, an antibiotic with antitumor properties. However, there is a lack of understanding in the field regarding the ecology of antibiotic production in S. padanus — specifically how antibiotic products contribute to antimicrobial activity during microbial interactions. Preliminary data suggests that activity of actinomycin D inhibits growth of the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae during interspecies interactions. In my research, I will […]