Greater Philadelphia
I completed a B.S. in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh with a minor in chemistry. During my time at Pitt, I researched antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) to treat multidrug resistant bacteria and was involved in multiple clubs/organizations. I also have experience in liver disease research including helping to develop and characterize iPSC derived liver cells as a translational model for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). Additionally, I have experience in immunology and infectious diseases through my contributions towards the development of T cell priming vaccines against Influenza, Zika, and Dengue and through studying antigen presentation. Outside of being a scientist, I enjoy tending to my garden or volunteering at local gardens. My most recent challenge is learning to care for Venus fly traps!
Developed translational liver cellular models through hiPSC derived hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs): -Differentiated hiPSCs and evaluated in-house protocol or commercial kit efficiency -Executed immunofluorescent staining to visualize and quantify marker expression at different developmental stages for quality control -Extracted RNA and performed Taqman RT-qPCR to analyze marker expression fold-change compared to iPSC or primary hepatocyte control -Evaluated hepatic-like function by quantifying albumin levels through sandwich ELISA -Demonstrated applicability of HLCs to future programs through successful BacMam transduction, followed by siRNA KD -Induced steatosis through exposure to fatty acids and imaged/quantified lipid droplet formation -Froze, recovered, and maintained hiPSCs and passaged using single cell or clump passaging methods -Prepared differentiation and maintenance media -Presented results at weekly team meetings
Characterized liver cell type response to activating treatments by performing the following: -Planned and executed cell-based assays to stimulate cells dose-dependently with activating treatments -Measured secreted cytokine concentrations using iQue flow cytometry for cytometric bead array and analyzed results with ForeCyt -Visualized extracellular matrix formation using Phenix high-content imaging -Measured cell confluency using Incucyte S3 and SX5 to assess cell proliferation after treatment -Maintained, cultured, froze, and thawed multiple primary or cell lines using aseptic technique -Responsible for analysis and interpretation of results using GraphPad Prism -Presented results to matrix team or department and recommended conditions for future experiments
Undergraduate student researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health for 3 semesters in the Deslouches lab researching the efficacy of de novo engineered cationic amphipathic peptides for treating multidrug resistant bacterial strains from the CDC -Performed minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) assays to determine which peptides, that are already known to have antimicrobial behavior, work best at treating certain strains of multidrug resistant bacteria -Evaluated peptides for altered antimicrobial function in the presence of saline -Screened for enhanced activity that amino acid substitutions have on the antibacterial activity of validated peptides using minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays -Demonstrated peptide mechanism of action as membrane perturbation, measured via propidium iodide incorporation into Staphylococcus aureus, detected by flow cytometry
Performed early target triages to identify potential drug candidates for immunological diseases: -Researched and presented early drug discovery targets during team meetings using information from databases and academic papers to investigate target physiological function, mechanism of action, relation to disease, in vivo models, safety, and competition Characterized immune cell response to stimulation during evaluation of an early drug target: -Developed experimental design ability using current academic literature -Independently performed cell-based assays to stimulate cells in suspension -Measured cytokine production after stimulation using ELISA -Assessed cell viability, via ATP production, using CellTiter-Glo and plate reader -Operated hemocytometers and automated cell counters to measure cell concentration and viability