Passionate, Driven, Visionary
About Me
I'm currently a graduate student in the Master's of Translational Medicine program offered jointly by the University of California, Berkeley and UCSF. The MTM program is a unique program that combines the pieces of bioengineering, clinical needs, and entrepreneurship.
I've always had a passion for scientific learning and innovation. This carries over into my desire to push the boundaries of current knowledge about ourselves and the world around us.
My goal is to be a physician-scientist who can design better solutions to today's persistent issues in medicine and healthcare, particularly in the fields of organ failure, diagnostic devices, and postoperative care.
Volunteer Work
Alta Bates Summit:
I'm currently working as a clinical volunteer in Same Day Surgery where my primary duties are calling patients, taking vitals, and assisting in patient turnover by making gurneys and discharging patients. When there are many patients to be seen the job is very fast paced and requires considerable autonomy. I work very closely with the nurses in Surgery, with the exception of sensitive or invasive tasks such as lab specimen collection or collecting patient personal information.
UCSF School of Medicine @ SFGH:
I'm currently working as a lab assistant in the lab of Dr. Hua Su where we analyze mouse models of arteriovenous malformations. My primary duties are in data analysis where I work with image processing software like Photoshop and ImageJ to analyze microscopy images, in speciment collection using a tissue sectioning machine, and in speciment staining using dyes like cresyl violet
Research
Luke Lee Lab
I've worked at UC Berkeley in the Lee Lab where I designed a gold nanoparticle biosensor for early diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease.
The biosensor consists of a gold nanoparticle - rhodamine pair linked via a peptide sequence specifically cleaved by apoptotic enzyme caspase-3.
Because of plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET), separation of rhodamine from the gold produces a dramatic increase in particle scattering of light. This method allows for easy monitoring of disease progression in Parkinson's patients with superior sensitivity and spatial resolution.
Catherine Murphy Lab
I've interned at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the lab of Dr. Catherine Murphy to optimize the synthesis of mesoporous silica coated gold nanorods and their use as drug delivery platforms
Mesoporous silica gold nanorods are ideal because they are tunable to absorb light strongly at discrete wavelengths, and are easily surface modified. This allows for a great deal of specificity and temporal control over the drug payload.
With this technology, we can utilize more potent therapeutic drugs and maximize their efficacy while minimizing systemic side effects resulting from nonspecific delivery.
Tyrone Porter Lab
I've interned at Boston University in the lab of Dr. Tyrone Porter to characterize the drug loading and release dynamics of doxorubicin within lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles.
Using organic compounds in the synthesis of nanoparticle carriers naturally means the entire vessel biodegradeable, a problem for inorganic compounds like gold.
However, because there is no trigger such as light, the emphasis of this approach to the drug delivery problem is more of a sustained release
Specificity is attained through surface modifications such as PEG
Henlius Biopharmaceuticals
I've volunteered at Henlius Biopharmaceuticals to assist them in developing a more efficient way to perform antibody screening by improving upon multiplexed fluorescent cell barcoding.
By combining nine separate 96 well plates into one, flow cytometry efficiency in the analysis of monoclonal antibodies was effectively increased 9 times. Using a facile method of assigning fluorescent barcodes to each sample, it was possible to deconvolute the single master plate into the original samples.