San Francisco Bay Area
Advisor: Prof. Nicole King Project 1: "The evolutionary origin of collagen" - Programmatically combed a publicly available proteome database, UniProt, for evidence of collagen proteins in non-animal species in order to investigate the widespread claim that collagen is unique to animals - Found that collagens are common in animals' close relatives and present across diverse non-animal eukaryotes, including fungi and algae - Used bioinformatic analyses to identify the biochemical characteristics of collagen genes outside animals Project 2: "Light-regulated contractility in a newly discovered multicellular choanoflagellate" - As part of a highly collaborative 3-person team, discovered a new species of choanoflagellate (a type of eukaryotic microorganism) and published a high-impact paper on its cell biology only one year later - Used bioinformatics & drug treatments to successfully characterize its vitamin A biosynthesis pathway and thereby determine media components required for its photoresponsive contractile behavior in culture - Designed creative drug & bacterial experiments to identify the receptor proteins & second messengers of the phototransduction pathway
- Worked for two semesters as a GSI (teaching assistant) for the undergraduate course MCB 104: Genetics, Genomics, and Cell Biology - Designed lesson plans that were used by me and other GSIs (including in years following) for weekly discussion sections - Wrote unit tests and contributed questions to midterms and final exams - Earned "Outstanding GSI Award" from UC Berkeley
- As TA for the Physiology Course, mentored 4 PhD students from other universities in conducting molecular & cell biology experiments with choanoflagellates - Helped the students design experimental plans and learn microscopy & cell biology techniques
Advisor: Prof. Santiago Ramirez (UC Davis) - Extracted tropical orchid scent mixtures for GCMS analysis to determine their chemical composition - Designed artificial mixtures of commercially available volatile compounds to replicate orchid scents - Designed & executed experiments to test effects of scent mixtures on pollinator attraction