University: Princeton University
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
NIH Research Project:
HIV Directs Lymphocyte Traffic
Mentor: Daniel Douek, M.D., MRCP, Ph.D.
Vaccine Research Center
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
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My interest in biomedical research started in the summer after my freshman year of high school when I conducted a 2-year study at the Wistar Institute on an enzyme that controls gene expression. The results of the study were published in Analytical Biochemistry. This experience made me realize the important connection between aberrant gene expression and diseases like cancer.
At a University of Pennsylvania laboratory, I studied the mechanisms of HIV-induced brain cell death in order to find therapeutic approaches to prevent or inhibit brain damage caused by HIV. After I entered college, however, my unceasing interest in cancer persuaded me to study the mechanisms involved in inducing death in cancer cells in Dr. Yigong Shi's laboratory at Princeton University.
Although I have developed a keen interest in cancer research, I decided to take this summer to explore the field of immunology in Dr. Daniel Douek's Laboratory of Immunology at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The main objective of Dr. Douek's laboratory is to gain a better understanding of the immune system response produced against HIV.
The UGSP has provided me with unprecedented opportunities and support in my quest to pursue a professional career in biomedical research. I hope to obtain a broad and strong science background in my next 3 years in college and to pursue the necessary postgraduate education to allow me to use multiple perspectives to attack cancer. |
