Druv Punjabi
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are a category of exploding stars, and serve as one of the most important tools for probing our universe today. Because of their extreme and consistent luminosity, they are widely used to measure distances to faraway galaxies. Determining these large-scale distances allows a better understanding of the universe’s expansion, and thus of dark energy itself, the driver behind the expansion’s acceleration. Several recent studies have suggested that the luminosities of these supernovae can be better standardized if we factor in the properties of their host […]
Karthik Vegesna
Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is a crucial cellular event during which vesicles at the cell surface containing nutrients, receptor molecules, and viral proteins are formed and brought into the cell interior. The process works via the formation of a clathrin-coated vesicle which is internalized against membrane tension with the assistance of a branched actin network. In mammalian cells, this process is incompletely understood, especially at later stages of internalization. Mathematical modeling efforts have successfully been able to evaluate the mechanism by which actin filaments can generate force to spur internalization, but so […]
Wendy Wan
Superconducting qubits, typically made from conventional metals such as aluminum or indium, are one of the best candidates for scalable quantum computing. However, these qubits are highly susceptible to environmental noise. To make the system more robust, scientists proposed to use topological qubits, a more exotic type of superconducting qubit made from a class of superconducting materials called spin-triplet superconductors. Due to the scarcity of naturally existing spin-triplet superconductors, the intrinsic properties thereof are largely under-explored, and there exist few good candidate materials for the next generation of quantum computers. […]
Bradley Oh
Perivascular spaces are cerebrospinal fluid filled areas that surround the brain’s blood vessels and are involved in waste clearance and molecule distribution. When these perivascular spaces become enlarged (ePVS), they become visible on MRI and may represent a response to blood brain barrier pathology and neurodegeneration. Cerebral arteriopathy dominant arteriopathy with sub-cortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is an autosomal dominant inherited small vessel disease that causes deterioration of small blood vessels, strokes, and cognitive impairment as early as the fourth and fifth decades of life. Due to their presence along […]
Simon Han
Liver transplantation is currently the only treatment for end-stage liver disease, but engraftment of liver organoids holds promise as a viable approach to resolve the shortage of donor livers. While traditional organoid cultures take place atop two-dimensional (2D) plates, rotating wall vessel bioreactors (RWVs) can be used to culture three-dimensional spheroid organoids, augmenting cell-cell interactions through the low shear stress, low turbulence environment provided by RWVs. The use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in organoids can further advance clinical translation, because using a transplant recipient’s own iPSCs may […]
Shuka Park
Female reproductive health is a pervasive issue in the medical field as 16.2% of married women ages 15-49 are affected by infertility. Recent studies reveal that poor female reproductive health arises, in part, from circadian disruption. Due to modern lifestyles, humans lack exposure to natural sunlight during daytime and receive excess artificial lighting during nighttime, which disrupts circadian rhythms. COVID-19 quarantining has exacerbated this issue, and despite knowing how harmful circadian disruption is for female reproductive health, the anatomy and physiology behind how the circadian and reproductive systems communicate remain […]
Stacy Hu
All steps of female reproduction—including ovulation, fertilization, and pregnancy—rely on timed secretion of reproductive hormones, which are synchronized to external time by exposure to sunlight during daytime and darkness at night. Circadian disruption (ex. irregular work/sleep schedules) can lead to reproductive issues; thus, understanding how the circadian system controls reproductive hormones is critical for identifying potential therapeutic targets for treating infertility and other gynecological disorders, and could help develop safer and more effective contraceptives. The “master clock” of the body’s circadian system is the brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which releases […]
Anushree Shirish Gupte
We have seen that acute inactivation or intermittent optogenetic silencing of the visual cortex of the brain results in behavioral deficits. On the other hand, permanent lesioning or chronic silencing results in mice recovering their ability to perform the detection task. In this paradigm, the mice have been habituated to the task over a certain period of time and thus have learnt it. To put it simply, in spite of deactivating the visual cortex required for task performance, mice are capable of recovering and using other processes to conduct the […]
Reshma Kodimerla
Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is the leading bacterial cause of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) worldwide with over 130 million people newly infected each year. Among Fijian women, Ct is hyperendemic—17.85% are infected whereas the global prevalence is 4.2%. There is growing concern that antibiotic treatment for Ct may contribute to an imbalance in the vaginal microbial composition which increases the risk of STIs like Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), human Papillomavirus (HPV), HIV-13 and possibly reinfection with Ct. My research will elucidate the effects of Azithromycin treatment […]
William Lin
The cataract, or clouding of the lens of the eye, is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Currently, the only effective treatment to remove cataracts is surgery, which costs $6.8 billion annually in the United States. Understanding the underlying mechanisms that cause cataracts may lead to new therapeutic strategies to prevent or delay the progression of cataracts, thereby alleviating the need for surgical intervention and possibly saving billions of dollars. Gap junctions are membrane channels that connect adjacent cells, allowing the transfer of metabolites, ions, and other small molecules for […]