In high school, I couldn't ask my host family to drive 2 hours to UW so I could do research. So when I came to UW, I knew that I wanted to do biomedical research immediately. Since then, research has been one of the most defining activities I have done at UW.
Kaeberlein Lab
I joined the Kaeberlein Lab my freshman year and has been doing research there ever since. I spent my first year conducting RNAi and drug screen lifespan experiments using C. elegans to develop the WormBot (published in GeroScience doi: 10.1007/s11357-019-00124-9). For the next two years, I studied the relationship between mitochondrial DNA degeneration and neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis by creating transgenic C. elegans. In my last year, I'm independently investigating the genes that affect hypoxic rescue of frataxin deficient yeasts, which is supported by the Washington Research Foundation Fellowship and Mary Gates Research Scholarship.
Stroke and Applied Neuroscience (SANS) Center
I joined the SANS my sophomore year to gain more translational and clinical research experience. For the first two years, I mainly studied the pathophysiology of intracranial aneurysm using patient-specific aneurysm 3D printed models and endothelial cells. In my final year, I am studying the relationship between HSV and vasospasm. At SANS, I not only had a tremendous amount of clinical exposure shadowing and working with my PIs but also gained invaluable relationship and support network.