Experience

AltPep
• United States
• Biotechnology
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Laboratory Research Assistant

  • May 2022 - Present


Carnegie Mellon University

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Undergraduate Researcher @ Barth Lab

  • Sep 2020 - Present

  Project 1 - Mouse Behavior Tracking with DeepLabCut• Led an initiative to apply DeepLabCut animal tracking software to mouse sensory association training experiments, and performed formal training for lab associates on how to use the software.• Extracted and analyzed qualitative data of behavioral changes in mice after training, revealing that Rbp4-cre mice with HM4Di injected into Barrel Cortex that drank CNO (thus silencing Layer 5 of Barrel Cortex) would continuously display behaviors associated with naive exposure to training tasks (confirming null hypothesis).Project 2 - Hippocampal Activity in AD Mouse Models• Investigated changes in hippocampal activity that occur in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) mouse models (APP/PS1)• Immunohistochemically stained 80+ Hippocampus slices and 60+ Entorhinal Cortical slices from 30+ mice for cFos expression.• Organized hand-counted cFos expressing cell data from imaged slices to reveal hyper-excitability of CA3 in young APP/PS1 mice compared to wild type mice.• Developed further experimental hypothesis based on aggregated data and am now exploring Entorhinal Cortical activity upstream of CA3 with a similar protocol.• Collaborating with Post Docs in the lab on a preliminary paper to publish our results.Project 3 - Layer 5a Cortical Neurons in Somatosensory Learning• Designed an experimental procedure to investigate the unknown specific role of Layer 5a pyramidal neurons of the Barrel Cortex in discriminatory somatosensory learning (discriminating one stimulus from the other).• Entirely self-managed the experiment in a timely manner from birth of mice, to neonatal injection, to set up of discriminatory Sensory Association Training task, to perfusion of mouse and brain extraction, to data collection from self-maintained Arduino-run cage.• Thoroughly verified usable data by cross checking behavioral analysis with histology of injected cortical area to confirm chemogenetic silencing of Layer 5a.

• Course Instructor

  • Aug 2021 - Present

  • Co-taught the Intro to Improv Comedy StuCo (Student-taught Course) for 4 hours a week for a 14-week semester.• Designed an engaging and educational curriculum that would take students from an absolute beginner level to an intermediate level capable of performing 20-30 minutes improvised long-form skits.

• Teacher’s Assistant Grader

  • Aug 2021 - Dec 2021

  • Processed, graded, and crafted personalized feedback on the essays and analytical assignments of 15 students in an advanced philosophy course for about 10 hours a week.• Effectively responded to student questions on homework and worked with the professor to shift class content to address student confusion.



TwinStrand Biosciences

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• QA/Operations Lab Assistant

  • May 2020 - Aug 2020

  • Developed quality assurance procedures and aided in lab and DNA Duplex Sequencing kit configuration over the course of 10 weeks. • Optimized kit shipping configuration and conditions to maintain a temperature controlled environment based on results from self-designed experiments. • Developed quality assurance procedures and aided in lab and DNA Duplex Sequencing kit configuration over the course of 10 weeks. • Optimized kit shipping configuration and conditions to maintain a temperature controlled environment based on results from self-designed experiments.