Oakland, California, United States
Masters of Education at Stanford University. B.S. Chemical Engineering B.A. Neuroscience Double Major. Interested in biomedical engineering and education.
Chemistry, Physics, and Biology Teacher at Wallenberg High School
In the O’Tousa Lab, I worked primarily in understanding the special properties of rhodopsin genes in Aedes aegypti (mosquitoes). Under the tutelage of Dr. Joseph O’Tousa and Dr. Michelle Whaley in the Department of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, I worked to induce missense mutations in the opsin genes of Aedes. via My work lied in studying these mutants to gain greater insight into a mosquito’s retinal organization and determine the basis of visually mediated behaviors of the insects; these mutations are introduced via CRISPR-Cas9 genetic engineering. I specifically targeted A. aegypti opsin 1 (Aaop1) and confirmed its role in light-sensitivity in vision-mediated behaviors (i.e. blood feeding, host detection). I also worked as a course designer and teaching assistant for a biology research laboratory based on O’Tousa lab’s work in gene knockdown/indel formation using CRISPR technology, where I developed lectures, quizzes, lab protocols, the course website, and instructional videos to aid in the students’ understanding of the processes at play in transgenic Cas9-mediated mutagenesis. I aided in the design of behavioral assays to test for behavioral differences between the visual mutants and wild-type mosquitoes. I then took the collected data from the student and integrated it into the O’Tousa lab’s research.
My main work for Dr. Zartman’s lab has come in the form of designing polyethylene terephthalate laminate (PETLs) microfluidics for culture and imaging of micro-organs dissected from fruit flies. I developed a key “U-shaped” channel that permitted the imaging of micro-organs under several testing conditions. The PETL design was used as a basis of comparison since it is cheaper and quicker to fabricate in comparison to polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chips. I also worked to create a quick and reliable method of dissecting wing disc organs from the flies. The staining media I developed was used to determine the organ viability under a variety of conditions within the microfluidic devices I designed. The organs were placed inside the microfluidic devices and observed using advanced microscopic techniques. My results helped to confirm PETLs as an appropriate microfluidic chip to PDMS in a published paper for which I was a co-author (Microfluidics on the fly: Inexpensive rapid fabrication of thermally laminated microfluidic devices for live imaging and multimodal perturbations of multicellular systems). I developed an integrative wrapper (known as MAPPER) for analyzing whole embryo and tissue data at the single cell level to be incorporated into class curricula. The graphical user interface (GUI) helped automate the process of calculating mechanical forces within morphogenesis for biomechanics, screening for new genes within morphogenetic development, G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) phenotypic assessments, point-spread functions for “deconvolution”, and use 3d-printing techniques on PETLs to allow for phenotypic assessments of Drosophila without needing to tear wing discs off. The findings were incorporated into a paper for publication
Teaching assistant for CHEM 10171 General Chemistry, CBE 30357 Biological Engineering, CE 30701 Asset Management & BIOS 11174 Biology Research Experience
Tutor in Calculus (I/II/III), Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, General Chemistry (I/II), Organic Chemistry (I/II), Biochemistry, Biology (I/II), Physical Chemistry, Biological Transport Phenomena
Wrote course materials (exams, quizzes, lecture notes, homework/classwork assignments) for CBE 30357 (Biological Transport), BIOS 11714 (Creating Mosquito Visual Mutants using CRISPR-Cas9 (CRISPR)), and CE 34701 Asset Management and Life-Cycle Assessment