Under the supervision of Dr. Michael Drazer, I am writing my undergraduate thesis during this final year of my undergraduate education as a part of the (Scholars) Honors in Biology cohort, titled: Modeling Germline TTLL6 Mutations to Prevent TTLL6-Driven Leukemogenesis.

Under the supervision of Dr. Steven Rhodes within Dr. D. Wade Clapp's lab, I investigated interferon (IFN) signaling associated with immune cell infiltration and cancer stemness in sarcoma; this was a part of the Herman B Wells Center Summer Internship Program. I used dry lab techniques via R, extracting from and merging datasets, and utilizing curated gene lists and the GSVA package in RStudio to write code that generated stemness scores and plots. Ultimately, I concluded that IFN Alpha signaling was positively associated with CD8+ T Cell count in TCGA Sarcoma and inversely related to cancer stemness.

Under the supervision of Dr. Heather O’Leary, and as a part of the Project STEM High School Summer Research Program, I investigated how low oxygen regulates the phenotypic properties of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). I learned how to conduct novel flow cytometry analysis to isolate, sort, and collect specific hematopoietic cell populations in physiologic low oxygen. Moreover, I analyzed isolated cells using image stream, flow cytometry, and DPP4 activity assay. Ultimately, I concluded that DPP4 exhibited differential regulation in SCA+, LSK, and LSK/CD150+ populations in low oxygen. DPP4 percent positive cells and expression was increased in all populations in low oxygen, while DPP4 enzyme activity was decreased. This suggested that DPP4, a major regulator of HSCs, was modulated by oxygen levels in ambient air.