Postbaccalaureate Research Experience
Stanford University, School of Medicine
In preparation for PhD graduate programs, I applied and got accepted to Stanford University as part of the School of Medicine's REACH Initiative Postbaccalaureate Research Program.
I joined Dr. William R. Goodyer's lab in the Center for Clinical Sciences Research (CCSR)​​ where I worked on a project entitled "Improved Differentiation and Purification of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Sinoatrial Nodal-like Cells." I presented this work in a research in progress talk in April 2025 and a poster at the REACH Capstone Symposium on May 2025.
Undergraduate Research Experience
UC Davis Genome Center
As a work-study undergraduate researcher in Dr. Megan Dennis's human genetics and genomics lab at the UC Davis Genome Center, I worked on a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project where I validated differentially expressed genes that are found within structural variants to elucidate what factors contribute to diverse traits and diseases in modern humans.
I presented this work in poster sessions at the UC Davis Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference in spring quarter 2024 and at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) in Pittsburgh, PA in November 2024.
Undergraduate Research Course
UC Davis College of Biological Sciences
During my last year, I took the capstone course for cell biology majors (MCB 140L) led by Dr. Ken Kaplan. This course introduced me to cell biology techniques and research questions. We explored the mechanisms of cell autophagy in onset and progression of neurodegenerative disease using S. cerevisiae as model system. We found that Parkison's disease-associated α-synuclein induces nuclear endoplasmic reticulum autophagy pathways.
At the end of the course, I wrote a mini-paper on our findings and presented our results to our peers.