Research Experience

ILC2s polarize microglia to a reparative, M2-like phenotype

Mentors: Drs. Jaroslaw “Jarek” Aronowski and Louise D. McCullough

The greatest risk factor for stroke is aging, which leads to a dysregulation of inflammatory responses throughout the body. Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) help balance inflammation in young mice but have not been investigated in aging. My thesis investigates how ILC2s and brain immune cells, called microglia, communicate and how ILC2s can control microglia to be reparative in aging and age-related diseases such as stroke.

Development of a high-throughput assay to screen antibody and T cell selectivity/specificity against the peptide/human leukocyte antigen complex

Mentors: Drs. Devin B Lowe and Jon A Weidanz

Immunotherapy is a first-line strategy against several forms of cancer and a common Y-shaped protein, called antibodies, is currently used as a therapeutic for cancer and other diseases. All cells, except red blood cells, let the immune system know they are healthy or infected using a signal called the peptide/human leukocyte antigen (HLA), and our group have developed an antibody that can recognize this signal and bring either drugs or immune cells to specific diseased targets. Unfortunately, many therapeutics fail in clinical trials, highlighting the need for more rigorous pre-clinical testing. During my master’s degree, I developed a platform to analyze how our antibodies bind these peptide/HLA complexes using labeled and unlabeled techniques to identify the most selective antibodies, thereby decreasing off-target effects and increasing patient safety.

Isolation, sequence, and characterization of p53 mRNA in various bat species

Mentor: Dr. Loren K Ammerman

Bats live substantially long lives compared to other mammals of similar size but do not develop cancer. Tumor suppressors are one mechanism meant to protect the body from cancer. p53 is a commonly researched tumor suppressor with many different variants of this protein. My undergraduate research investigated the message that leads to the protein (mRNA) extracted from bats that I helped capture and preserve and mRNA sequences found in a database to compare p53 sequences between bats and other mammals. I discovered a unique insertion in 4 of the 5 bats in my alignment, though the biological importance of this region remains to be determined.