University: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Hometown: Libertyville, IL
NIH Research Project:
Gene Therapy and the Retroviral Bias: Preferred Targeting of Transcription Start Sites Is Compatible with Long-term, Event-free Survival of Gene Corrected T-Cells in vivo
Mentor: Fabio Candotti, M.D.
Genetics and Molecular Biology Branch
National Human Genome Research Institute
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I consider myself extremely lucky to have entered into the world of biological science when two of its greatest mysteries-the human genome and embryonic stem cells-are beginning to be understood. The recent advances in these fields both fascinate me and drive me. With this drive, I hope to become a thorough and innovative scientist, working to uncover nature's intricacies. To this end, I have a long road ahead of me, but I feel I have come quite a way already.
I was first exposed to research at the Blatter Functional Genomics Lab during my freshman year of college. Currently, I am a junior genetics major at UW - Madison, and I work in the UW Hospital with Dr. Aimen Shaaban. His work centers on embryonic stem cell differentiation into blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells. The ultimate goal of this research is to prenatally transplant these hematopoietic stem cells into patients to cure or allow for treatment of disease before the patient is born.
As a UGSP Scholar at the NIH, I have the pleasure of training with Dr. Fabio Candotti in the Disorders of Immunity Section of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Here, I work on assessing the safety of retroviral-mediated gene transfer into T-lymphocytes by preparing and analyzing retroviral integration sites into the genome of a patient who received gene therapy in the early 90s.
In the future, I hope to finish graduate school and work in the field of stem cell biology. |
