Week 6

Min Ju Lee Mentors: Victoria Hall, Nicole Calakos M.D.-Ph.D Department of Neurbiology Habitual behaviors are automatic reactions to a certain stimulus, which enables the brain to reduce cognitive load of performing repeated sequences. While habits can be beneficial, the process...

Tissue-engineered skeletal muscle is a promising platform for in vitro modeling of human muscle diseases and pharmacological testing. However, most engineered skeletal muscle tissues contain only muscle and fibroblasts, lacking the complexity of native muscle, which also includes motorneurons, macrophages,...

Drosophila courtship behaviors are primarily governed by two master regulatory genes: fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx). Both of these genes undergo sex-specific splicing to produce male-specific transcription factors that drive male-specific courtship behaviors. In the olfactory system, there are three...

Reprogramming endogenous mRNA by Crispr Associated Fragment Trans-splicing (CRAFT) Nicolas Rey Mentors: David Fiflis, Aravid Asokan, Ph.D. Departments of Biomedical Engineering, MGM, Surgery Gene therapy is a strategy to correct monogenic disorders through the delivery of nucleic acids that encode...

James J Zheng1 Mentors: John S Decker1, Michael D Lynch, MD, PhD1,2 Departments of Biomedical Engineering1, Chemistry2 Lectins are naturally occurring proteins found in bacteria, plants, and algae that recognize specific carbohydrates found on many viral envelope proteins. This unique...

Bryan Rego Mentors: Victoria Goldenshtein, Michael Tadross, Ph.D. Department of Neurobiology DART is a novel drug delivery system based on covalent interaction between the HaloTag ligand and the HaloTag receptor that acts as a homing device to enable the delivery of...

Sofia Guerrero Mentors: Vanessa Simões, Gustavo Silva, Ph.D. Department of Biology Oxidative stress, where cells accumulate reactive oxygen species (ROS), is among the most prominent types of harmful environment, damaging cellular biomolecules, fostering cell death, and contributing to neurodegeneration. Cells...

Ali Pagliery Mentors: Richard Wong, Katrina DeWitt, Justin Wright, Ph.D. Department of Biology  Sarracenia purpurea is a species of carnivorous plant with pitcher-like structures that collect rainwater. Inside the pitchers lives an inquiline micro-community of organisms that help break down...

Neica Joseph Mentors: Katrina Wilson, Tatiana Segura, Ph.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University Ischemic strokes account for 87% of strokes worldwide and occur when a blood clot obstructs blood flow to the brain, causing subsequent death of tissue and...

Isabella Costanzo Mentors: Julia Palmucci, Jennifer Tenor, Ph.D., John Perfect, M.D. Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases Cryptococcus neoformans, a ubiquitous infectious yeast, proliferates in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) causing fungal meningitis in immunocompromised individuals. CSF is deficient in nitrogen,...

George Romero Mentors: Jiaxuan Qi, Richard Mooney, Ph.D. Department of Neurobiology - Duke University School of Medicine Previously studied neurons and cell types within the brain have been characterized using methods that are considerably slow, inefficient, and expensive. To present,...

Zach Pracher Mentor: Dave McClay, Ph.D. Department of Biology The developmental gene regulatory network (GRN) of the green sea urchin (Lytechinus variegatus) has been extensively investigated to illuminate the genetic interactions underlying embryonic development and has led to many insights...

Nadeska Montalvan Mentors: Martina Zafferani1, Amanda E. Hargrove1,2 1Department of Chemistry 2Department of Biochemistry Out of the total RNA transcribed in cells, only 1.5% is translated into proteins. About 70% of the rest of the human genome is transcribed into...

Author: Shibani Mallik Mentor: Nina Tang Sherwood, Ph.D. Department of Biology Spastin is a microtubule-severing protein important for microtubule degradation and growth. Spastin mutations in humans are known to cause Autosomal Dominant Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (AD-HSP), a neurodegenerative disease of...

Megan Stone Mentors: Jennifer Li, Lindsey Glickfeld, Ph.D. Department of Neurobiology It has been thought that varying subtypes of interneurons have different roles in controlling the neuronal circuits that drive visual perception.  This has been primarily studied through the activation or...