Paige is a second-year PhD student of the Reynolds lab studying the impacts of epigenetics and food insecurity on human health.

I am a biochemistry graduate student in the Shaw Lab focusing on RNA and RNA modifications. Additionally, I focus on making the chemistry lab and science materials more accessible to the blind and visually impaired. I work with people with blindness or low vision and help them to feel more confident in scientific careers. 

I am a biochemistry graduate student in the Trakselis Lab, focused on DNA replication and repair fundamentals. DNA replication is the process of copying genetic material for cell division, and the accuracy of this process is vital since DNA is the the instructions that tell your body how to make protein machines and how to function. If anything in this process goes wrong, it can cause mutations that lead to cancer and other issues. I want to study how the replication machinery works to make sure those mutations don’t happen! Specifically, I study the E. coli Polymerase III Core Holoenzyme, which is responsible for the replication, or synthesis, of new DNA strands. I observe changes in activity of the wild type verses several mutants, which I create using site directed mutagenesis techniques. 

Mayte is a third year graduate student in the Shaw Lab studying various metalloproteins and how the metals affect the protein. Specifically, I look at a protein involved in a neurodegenerative disease, ALS, and the formation of its aggregates into amyloid.

Jessica is a PhD candidate in the Kane Lab studying organic chemistry. Her work focuses on using organic chemistry to reduce inflammation in transplants by developing methods to locally deliver a potent anti-inflammatory drug, TAK-242, to transplanted tissue. Have you ever skinned your knee and noticed that the skin around it gets red and warm to the touch? That’s acute inflammation, your body’s first response to an injury or infection as it tries to heal. Inflammation is typically a sign that an injury is healing but, for fragile organ transplants, acute inflammation can cause more harm than good.  She designs prodrugs that attach to the cell surface of a transplant and then slowly release the target drug over time. She’s in PYPhD because she believes that part of being a scientist to spread knowledge and show that anyone can understand and excel at science if you break the concepts down to small enough parts.

I am a first year Chemistry PhD student! I love science and spending time in the lab! Fun fact about me: I am a potter on the side and love talking about ceramics!

Sadia is a third year graduate student in the Trakselis Lab, which focuses on DNA and DNA enzymes.

Colin is a second-year graduate student in the Blair Lab. He does research in machine learning, quantum computing, and computer science. His current research projects involve the design and simulation of molecular computing systems. He is also doing research in the area of material discovery, researching how machine learning can be applied to the problem of discovering new materials like superconductors, which have useful quantum properties. He is in PYPhD in order to improve his communication skills and to contribute to increasing scientific literacy and participation in STEM-based activities.

Isaac is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He works in the JALLISON lab group, studying additive manufacturing of aluminum. His current project is on additive friction stir deposition (AFS-D), an additive manufacturing process which uses friction to manufacture metal parts (as opposed to forming parts via a melting process). He studies how the machine parameters affect the additively manufactured part’s microscopic structure (microstructure), and how the microstructure affects material properties such as strength and hardness. This parameter-microstructure-property research allows additively manufactured parts to be stronger and cheaper.

Coming soon! Check back for updates.

Nick is a 5th year PhD student with the Planetary Research Group studying the planetary geophysics. He studies the inside of Mars using gravity and topography measurements along with modeling techniques. This data analysis and modeling work can help figure out what is happening inside the red planet and what it means for how the planet has evolved over the last 4 billion years.

When some people think of insects, they primarily see them as pests. But insects are more than just an annoyance. Fire ants, for example, are an invasive species that harm the environment and cause the United States several billion dollars of losses per year. Mosquitoes are vectors for many diseases, and lead to the death of more people than any other animal on earth. Triatominae (or “kissing bugs”) can cause Chagas disease, a lifelong infection that can be fatal. These are just a few examples of the problems that insects cause. I am working towards developing toxins that would target individual insect species and avoid harming off-target organisms. These would control specific populations of insects more effectively, while keeping the environment and other organisms safe. 

Diseases spread by Culex mosquitoes, such as the West Nile virus and dengue, result in millions of deaths or serious illnesses in humans worldwide.  To combat insecticide resistance, the sterile insect technique (SIT) method of mosquito control was recently developed. SIT refers to a massive release of sterile male mosquitoes unable to produce offspring upon mating with native females. Working in Dr. Cheolho Sim’s lab, my goal is to locate sex-specific genes in the Culex mosquito sex gene cascade which could serve as targets for inducing male sterilization and, thus, effective SIT application.

Approximately half of the world’s population is at risk of contracting mosquito borne illnesses. Many of these diseases are painful and deadly, and currently there are few effective management techniques available to those that are the most vulnerable. By researching and manipulating the genetics of various varieties of mosquitoes, we can better understand their behavior. In particular, I am interested in mosquito chemosensory systems. 

My research focuses on measuring important biomarkers of marine vertebrate physiology in tissues that grow throughout an animal’s life to understand how changes to their environment impact their health. Yelloweye rockfish live to be >100 years old and each year their opercula (bone that covers and protects their gills) lays down light and dark growth layers, similar to tree rings. Typically, these growth increments are used to age fish, however, I am measuring reproductive (progesterone and estradiol) and stress-related (cortisol) steroid hormones in these growth increments of female yelloweye rockfish to help estimate important fish reproductive parameters. Specifically, I am trying to estimate the age of sexual maturity, how often mature females spawn, and how their reproduction and stress physiology is impacted by changes to their environment. Lastly, I am measuring contaminants (total mercury) and other trace elements along the whiskers of a sentinel Antarctic species, the leopard seal, to understand the health of the leopard seal and its Antarctic ecosystem over the past two to three years. 

I am a biology PhD student in both the Powers and Scott Labs, focused on factors that drive harmful algal blooms and harmful cyanobacterial blooms. Specifically, I study the biogeochemical drivers of these blooms at different scales of size. While I now focus on freshwater, my past focus has been on the freshwater-to-marine continuum, meaning that I studied the interconnections between rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters, and the oceans. I also have studied climate change through measuring diversity of insects across North America.

Roughly 100 years ago, Einstein came up with a new theory of gravity that succeeded all the previous ones. Apart from explaining everything with more accuracy it also had some remarkable predictions. One of them is the existence of Black holes. Despite all the criticism, we observed these exotic objects with the help of Gravitational waves in 2015. Recently we were also able to take a picture of a Black hole that is a million times heavier than our sun. Although our understanding of these objects has grown by leaps and bounds in these 100 years, we do not have a clear understanding of what happens inside a black hole. It is believed that we need a theory of quantum gravity to understand these regions. Although unfortunately, we do not have such a theory, scientists have been using semi-classical methods to study the interior of a black hole. My research is focused on these aspects

Vanessa is a first year graduate student studying neuroscience!