Kingston, Ontario, Canada
I am a recent graduate from the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) program at Queen's University. During my undergraduate studies, I acquired more than 3 years of research experience in the area of cancer therapeutics and was a recipient of the NSERC USRA at the Department of Biochemistry/Life Sciences and Weaver/Howe Summer Studentship Award funded by Queen's Cancer Research institute. Outside of academics, I am highly passionate about outreach and youth empowerment via health and academic education. I am actively involved in teaching, creating new initiatives, and workshops, as well as curriculum design for summer programs that accommodate recent newcomers to learn about health, healthcare, and healthcare careers with professionals and students working frontline in these fields.
• Conducted needs assessment to understand areas of health needs amongst post-secondary students to potentiate mental health-based resource referral intervention program. • Led a team of 10 student PWN staff and collaborated with clinical staff at the Student Wellness Centre to ensure the program adequately assisted clinical workflow and addressed students' health concerns.
conducted a lung cancer translational project combining DNA-targeting strategies and anti-PD1-PD-L1 therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), supervised under Dr. Andrew Craig (QCRI director) and Dr. Pierre Olivier Gaudreau (CCTG Senior scientist) 4th-year thesis project focused on the role of ATRi in improving response to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy, and strategies to overcome resistance to this combination through protein/RNA biomarker detection assays and NSCLC-T-cell co-culture system.
• Supervised in-class tutorials and assisted students to complete in-class weekly group assignments/case studies. • Graded course assessments and provided appropriate feedback/rationale. • Answered course content inquiry on the physiology of specific human tissues and organs.
• Supervised weekly classes on relevant concepts of grade 11 biology, assigned homework, and project to students of recent immigrants. • Facilitated class of diverse students and ensured lessons accommodate each student’s level.
Under the supervision of Dr. Edmond Chan, the project aimed to investigate how mitochondrial fusion factor Opa1 (Optic atrophy 1) or mitochondrial fusion can be exploited to sensitize triple-negative breast cancer against front-line DNA-damaging chemotherapeutics. Completed a 3rd-year research project investigating the possible role of Opa1 in DNA repair mechanisms in BRCA1/2 deficient ovarian cancer, which may be exploited to sensitize BRCA1/2 against PARP inhibitors as well as to potentiate additional therapeutic strategy for achieving synthetic lethality.
Under the supervision of Dr. Edmond Chan, the project aimed to: 1) Examine how mitochondrial fusion/fission controls mitochondrial function, stress signaling, and metabolic network reprogramming. 2) Understand how mitochondrial fusion maintains aggressive breast cancer cell growth under metabolic stress (reflecting conditions inside tumor cores). 3) Explore how these mitochondrial pathways alter apoptosis rates and sensitivity to frontline chemotherapeutics
• Prepared a diverse cohort of newcomer students for the AP Calculus BC exam by guiding them to solve complex mathematical problems using the class-taught materials, while accommodating their varying learning styles, pace, and mathematical backgrounds. • Instructed and mentored students to review concepts and methods/strategies to learn/prepare for AP Calculus exams.