During my time in college, I was able to explore research in four labs. My research projects over these years focused on eukaryotes, genotyping, natural product isolation, and hydrogels. I was able to explore a great variety of lab techniques through these projects from confocal microscopy and molecular biology skills to column chromatography, polymer synthesis, and cell culture. Through this work, I was able to publish two first author papers by the time I started graduate school. I loved research from my first semester exploring it and have fostered that passion since. Described below in greater detail are each of these undergraduate research experiences in chronological order.
Investigated nuclear features of the eukaryotic ciliate Blepharisma americanum, including the determination of DNA amplification from micronuclei to macronuclei using confocal microscopy.
Conducted molecular biology techniques to genotype 70 mice from a CRIPSR/Cas-9 study and explored bioinformatics analysis methods using R including EdgeR.
Isolated individual natural product compounds with column chromatography and HPLC and conducted structural analysis with 2D NMR and MS experiments.
Developed physical and chemical patterning methods for “click-type” azlactone functional hydrogels using topographically patterned PDMS substrates and reactive fluorescent compounds and characterized efficacy with confocal microscopy. Additionally synthesized a range of functionalized azlactone hydrogels and characterized degree of functionalization via FTIR as well as the effect of functionalization on swelling properties and diffusivity.
Katz Lab Buck Lab Cosgriff-Hernandez Lab Hewitt Lab