Aasha Turner

Regulation of protein homeostasis is essential to many cellular and organellar functions. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated protein degradation (ERAD) is a group of protein quality control mechanisms highly conserved among eukaryotes. Doa10 is an integral ER membrane E3 ubiquitin ligase responsible for ubiquitination and degradation of misfolded and mistargeted proteins in the cell. While the function of Doa10 is well documented, its exact substrate binding mechanism is unknown. From my project, I aim to answer the following question: which amino acid residues on Doa10 are essential for substrate binding and subsequent […]

Connor Tseng

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in older adults worldwide. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a layer of the retina, is the primary site of injury in AMD. Photoreceptor outer segments are constantly being renewed, so the RPE degrades the older outer segment tips in order to maintain photoreceptor health and vision. Lipofuscin bisretinoids (undigested vitamin A metabolites) disrupt autophagy in the RPE, contributing to macular degeneration pathogenesis. Interestingly, outer segment degradation is unaffected in AMD, suggesting that the outer segment clearance is regulated by a […]

Ryan Tran

Just over a decade ago, research in a revolutionary genetic engineering tool known as CRISPR-Cas (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) was pioneered here at UC Berkeley by the Doudna Lab. While the use of CRISPR in disease treatments has been well documented, much of the biology behind the diverse functions of CRISPR in their original hosts, bacteria and archaea, remain unknown. CRISPR-Cas (CRISPR-associated) systems are a type of bacterial immune system that can recognize and inactivate foreign genetic invaders. One fundamental question is how these CRISPR systems remember foreign […]

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 […]