Jillyan Tang

Social behavior is a characteristic of mammalian biology that significantly affects individual fitness and survival. Differences in a species’ social composition are often indicated by the differences in their dispersal behaviors. Our project seeks to investigate the neural mechanisms that explain dispersal behavior among mammals. To address this, we are studying the social behavior of colonial tuco-tucos (Ctenomys sociabilis) because of their unique variation in social dynamics and female dispersal patterns. By studying these animals (which are the only captive population of this species worldwide) we hope to create the […]

Anthony Neil Tan

Quillaja Saponaria (under common name Soapbark Tree) is a Chilean tree known for producing QS-21, a triterpenoid saponin with pharmaceutical use as an adjuvant in COVID-19 and measles vaccines. However, little is known about the biochemical pathways in which QS-21 is produced. This project aims to elucidate abiotic contributors to saponin production by eliciting production of QS-21 via ultraviolet radiance and chemical means. Gene expression and metabolite production will be compared between control and experimental subjects to determine possible saponin production pathways. Understanding the biochemical process for saponin production can […]

Jonanne Talebloo

In recent years, adolescent screen time has increased tremendously, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. A striking number of teens report constantly using social media. Other forms of screen use such as video games are also rising as the percentage of adolescents owning video game consoles continues to increase, even in low-income families. With more adolescents having access to technology like mobile phones and video game consoles than ever before, it is crucial that the adverse effects of screen use be well documented and understood. There is a lack of literature […]

Renzo Soatto

Throughout this summer, I will be designing and implementing a novel regularization technique to improve the performance of deep learning models for predicting properties of biological sequences, such as proteins or regulatory DNA.  Predicting properties of biological sequences has many applications, ranging from understanding disease mechanisms to designing new therapeutics. However, deep learning struggles with this task because most data sets are small and/or extremely noisy, due to the challenges of conducting the required wet-lab experiments. Without large amounts of high-quality data, models need to have the right inductive biases, […]

Rachel Shon

Stroke is the blockage of blood flow to the brain that can cause lasting damage, disability, and death. Each year, there are at least 795,000 people in the United States who have a stroke. It is known that the inflammatory response can exacerbate cellular injury after stroke, thus, suppressing the immune response is a promising approach to reducing damage. One method of suppressing the immune response would be decreasing immune cell activity by slowing the rate of glucose breakdown through glycolysis. The first step of glycolysis involves the enzyme hexokinase. […]

Jordan Shellow

The purpose of my research is to investigate if chronic stress impacts the aging brain, focusing on the neocortex. Allostatic load, the sum of all chronic stress, is known to cause harmful impacts on health, and this study seeks to examine how certain degenerative pathways in the neocortex are affected by stress. Further, the neocortex is necessary for many cognitive processes such as memory, perception, thought and attention, making it of particular interest for cognitive aging research. If this project finds a relation between high allostatic load and degradation of […]

Shahar Schwartz

Crops face a wide variety of novel challenges in the field, especially from global warming and the emergence of new plant pathogens. Gene editing technologies (like CRISPR) are a powerful tool to combat these challenges, but we’ve only scratched the surface of how they can be used in plants. During the summer, I’ll be researching several different methods of inducing gene editing in plants. The project I’m most directly involved with uses an enzyme called ProCas9, which is a synthetically modified version of the enzyme Cas9 that could potentially be […]

Rohan Rattan

Plant development is regulated by hormones. A particularly important hormone controlling cell growth, division and differentiation in plants is cytokinin. Exposure to cytokinin is known to trigger the increase in the expression of hundreds of genes that reprogram the cell. However, these genes do not respond simultaneously. The cell carefully regulates the speed with which genes turn on after a stimulus. How do plants control the order and speed at which different cytokinin-responsive genes turn on in response to the hormone? To answer this, I plan to explore the temporal […]

Sarah Peykar

Metabolic inflexibility shows relation to the prevalence of diabetes, specifically as a precursor of type 2 diabetes, and obesity. My research project will focus on determining metabolic flexibility in athletically trained vs. untrained, young and old participants through measuring the relationship between exercise status, age, sex, and the ability to oxidize carbohydrates and fatty acids. Those with type 2 diabetes are metabolically inflexible, and thus lack the mitochondria necessary to oxidize glucose and fat. Mitochondrial function is imperative for energy metabolism to produce cellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in skeletal muscles, […]

Carolyn Nguyen

Cancer immunotherapy is a therapeutic treatment that supplements the body’s immune system and is a proven approach to treat patients with advanced cancers. Through this treatment, key mediators called T cells suppress tumor function by specifically recognizing tumor-expressing antigens and attacking tumor cells. However, with time, T cells eventually enter a dysfunctional or exhausted state due to prolonged antigen stimulation, leading to a loss of effector functions and a transcriptional state distinct from that of healthy T cells. T cell exhaustion can result in sustained expression of inhibitory receptors and […]