Research Experience
Metabolic Integration in Salmonella enterica: My first research experience began with a summer internship in the Bacteriology department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, investigating the compensatory mechanisms involved in metabolic integration. The overarching goal was to identify the changes and alternative pathways required to sustain life in a Salmonella enterica strain whose thiamine (vitamin B1) biosynthetic gene, thiH, had been replaced by an equivalent non-homologous gene from Bacillus subtilis, thiO, which is more prevalent than thiH among bacteria. This strain grows normally in aerobic conditions with and without B1 supplementation. However, under anaerobic conditions growth occurs only in media supplemented with B1. My first project was to determine whether anaerobic growth without B1 could be restored by overexpressing thiO, which led to my first scientific achievement of successfully constructing an S. enterica strain with a promoter mutation to overexpress thiO. However, I found that overexpression of thiO does not reverse growth defects seen in anaerobic conditions. In my second project, I determined that leucine and valine are critical amino acids for restoring growth under both fermenting and anaerobic nutrient-deprived conditions. Lastly, I was responsible for isolating a mutant strain that spontaneously gained the ability to produce vitamin B1 in order to gain insight into genomic alterations that affect the bacteria’s metabolic network. Random mutations were introduced into S. enterica by the P22 phage delivery method. Like any research, not all experiments work perfectly. Coming from a teaching academic lab setting, where everything was optimized to work on the first try, I experienced my first scientific experimental failure, whereby, there was no existing protocol to solve the issue, and therefore, it was my first lesson in trouble shooting a solution to solve the problem. It was an honor to have my first research experience to be in this lab because everyone worked closely as a team to solve scientific questions. The lab always provided a supportive and collaborative environments to help each other solve experimental challenges. This experience was pivotal in gaining trouble shooting skills, a critical skill required for scientific research, and was important for developing a strong foundation in my creativity in research. Role of YPR015C in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle progression: Upon returning to Mills College, I continued to indulge my passion for research by joining the competitive Jill Barrett Research Program. As a Barrett Scholar, my project was to delineate the biological role and cellular localization of an uncharacterized Saccharomyces cerevisiae open reading frame, YPR015c. Previous research found YPR015c overexpression delayed cell cycle progression. Therefore, I constructed an YPR015c knockout strain through PCR and homologous recombination to determine its specific effects upon the yeast cell cycle. Using sequence information from the E. coli shuttle vector and the yeast chromosomal locus, I designed the primers for the successful knockout. Using similar approaches, I tagged YPR015c with GFP at its chromosomal locus to elucidate its cellular localization. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we only constructed the tagged strain, but this set the stage for later studies by other Barrett Scholars, who discovered that deletion of YPR015c specifically affected the morphogenetic (budding) phase of the yeast cell cycle. Respiratory syncytial virus and influenza virus analytic …show more content…
I executed fluorescent focus and TCID50 cell-based assays to quantify titers of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza virus. I managed all RSV development/stability projects for titer testing. This experience sparked an interest in further exploring biomedical research as a career. As a result, I obtained a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology …show more content…
The project’s mission was to assess the nutritional status of neonates and children from developing countries to create a global map of nutritional deficiency trends. This information will be used to track the impact of nutritional status on disease susceptibility and development. My role was to assess iron levels through transferrin receptor detection by ELISA assays in six-month infant serum samples across multiple countries. This global research project gave me an insight on how important field research and bench research is needed to generate evidence to bring a change to public health issues in these underdeveloped countries, thus, this global research project bridges scientific research and public health to bring change to world
Metabolic Integration in Salmonella enterica: My first research experience began with a summer internship in the Bacteriology department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, investigating the compensatory mechanisms involved in metabolic integration. The overarching goal was to identify the changes and alternative pathways required to sustain life in a Salmonella enterica strain whose thiamine (vitamin B1) biosynthetic gene, thiH, had been replaced by an equivalent non-homologous gene from Bacillus subtilis, thiO, which is more prevalent than thiH among bacteria. This strain grows normally in aerobic conditions with and without B1 supplementation. However, under anaerobic conditions growth occurs only in media supplemented with B1. My first project was to determine whether anaerobic growth without B1 could be restored by overexpressing thiO, which led to my first scientific achievement of successfully constructing an S. enterica strain with a promoter mutation to overexpress thiO. However, I found that overexpression of thiO does not reverse growth defects seen in anaerobic conditions. In my second project, I determined that leucine and valine are critical amino acids for restoring growth under both fermenting and anaerobic nutrient-deprived conditions. Lastly, I was responsible for isolating a mutant strain that spontaneously gained the ability to produce vitamin B1 in order to gain insight into genomic alterations that affect the bacteria’s metabolic network. Random mutations were introduced into S. enterica by the P22 phage delivery method. Like any research, not all experiments work perfectly. Coming from a teaching academic lab setting, where everything was optimized to work on the first try, I experienced my first scientific experimental failure, whereby, there was no existing protocol to solve the issue, and therefore, it was my first lesson in trouble shooting a solution to solve the problem. It was an honor to have my first research experience to be in this lab because everyone worked closely as a team to solve scientific questions. The lab always provided a supportive and collaborative environments to help each other solve experimental challenges. This experience was pivotal in gaining trouble shooting skills, a critical skill required for scientific research, and was important for developing a strong foundation in my creativity in research. Role of YPR015C in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle progression: Upon returning to Mills College, I continued to indulge my passion for research by joining the competitive Jill Barrett Research Program. As a Barrett Scholar, my project was to delineate the biological role and cellular localization of an uncharacterized Saccharomyces cerevisiae open reading frame, YPR015c. Previous research found YPR015c overexpression delayed cell cycle progression. Therefore, I constructed an YPR015c knockout strain through PCR and homologous recombination to determine its specific effects upon the yeast cell cycle. Using sequence information from the E. coli shuttle vector and the yeast chromosomal locus, I designed the primers for the successful knockout. Using similar approaches, I tagged YPR015c with GFP at its chromosomal locus to elucidate its cellular localization. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we only constructed the tagged strain, but this set the stage for later studies by other Barrett Scholars, who discovered that deletion of YPR015c specifically affected the morphogenetic (budding) phase of the yeast cell cycle. Respiratory syncytial virus and influenza virus analytic …show more content…
I executed fluorescent focus and TCID50 cell-based assays to quantify titers of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza virus. I managed all RSV development/stability projects for titer testing. This experience sparked an interest in further exploring biomedical research as a career. As a result, I obtained a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology …show more content…
The project’s mission was to assess the nutritional status of neonates and children from developing countries to create a global map of nutritional deficiency trends. This information will be used to track the impact of nutritional status on disease susceptibility and development. My role was to assess iron levels through transferrin receptor detection by ELISA assays in six-month infant serum samples across multiple countries. This global research project gave me an insight on how important field research and bench research is needed to generate evidence to bring a change to public health issues in these underdeveloped countries, thus, this global research project bridges scientific research and public health to bring change to world