Christopher Hall

Adolescence has been defined as a transitional period characterized by physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes while the brain goes through a parallel process of circuit refinement. It is also a window of vulnerability for the development of disorders like schizophrenia and addiction. However, our understanding of the role of puberty, and the coincident surge in gonadal hormones, in brain and behavioral development is still incomplete. Multiple studies have shown both testosterone- and estrogen-dependent modulation of reward-related behaviors and its circuitry. However, there are yet to be studies that test the […]

Tiffany Hangse

Robust conventional T cell development in vitro remains challenging without the thymic microenvironment. Within this organ are two subsets of highly specialized thymic epithelial cells: cTECs and mTECs. Both arise from a common bipotent progenitor whose differentiation is regulated by the forkhead box transcription factor, FOXN1. FOXN1 also mediates TEC-thymocyte crosstalk and is believed to have postnatal roles in maintaining thymus integrity. Therefore, my research project will explore in vitro TEC differentiation and, subsequently, T cell maturation. I plan to develop a human TEC line overexpressing FOXN1 and then co-culture […]

Diana Leslie Cornejo

Chronic stress has been shown to have lasting and damaging effects on an individuals physical and mental health. One of the avenues of life that stress can impact significantly is female fertility and reproductive success. Prenatal stress leads to lower birth weights of fetuses, decreased success rate of full-term pregnancies, and delayed development. Although studies have established the role in which cortisol, the main hormone released during stress, is secreted by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and plays an integral role in the neuroendocrine stress response, little is known regarding how […]

Leyla Namazie

During their formation, all rocks are exposed to Earths magnetic field. The subsequent magnetization of their individual ferromagnetic minerals preserves a record of the field at that moment in time. Described as a rocks primary natural remanent magnetization (NRM), this property allows us to observe changes in the Earths geodynamo over the course of history by comparing data with modern magnetic orientations. However, variations between a rocks paleomagnetic direction and the current magnetic direction may also be due to tectonic disturbances such as geologic folding, seafloor spreading, or crustal block […]

Brigita Widiarto

Interactions between neurons and glia are required for healthy synaptic remodeling, the formation and removal of synapses, and in developing a mature neural circuit. Neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and schizophrenia are devastating outcomes as a result of faulty circuit and synapse formation. Recently published work from the Molofsky lab has shown that developing astrocytes release an innate immune molecule, interleukin-33 (IL-33). This molecule signals to microglia to remove excess synapses from neurons. But it is unclear how circuits and neuronal activity are affected when the receptor for IL-33 (ST2) on […]

Antonia Bronars

Traditional robots are often ineffective in environments with rough and uncharted terrain. For this reason, robots are underutilized for applications like disaster relief, HazMat, CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive) response, and space exploration. The Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrity (BEST) Lab is developing a tensegrity soft robot, designed to travel over rough terrain after surviving large impacts. The BEST lab robot would be deployed by aerial vehicle, then traverse the unknown area, sending back sensor data and arming first responders with previously inaccessible information. The existing robot moves via […]

Kirsten Young

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein that ordinarily regulates cytoskeletal stabilization, but is abnormally hyper-phosphorylated and acetylated in neurodegenerative diseases classed as tauopathies. Although little is known about how tau becomes pathological, previous studies showed that the over-activation of the mTOR pathway could be implicated in tau pathogenesis. Multiple essential cellular functions are regulated by the two different mTOR-dependent pathwaysmTORC1 and mTORC2. These are distinguished from one another by pathway- specific proteins Raptor and Rictor, respectively. To understand which mTOR pathway is responsible for tau pathology, I will generate stable cell […]

Cindy Chau

The presence of nutrients such as amino acids, glucose, or nitrogen and varying growth factors is hypothesized to activate the target of rapamycin (TOR) which initiates eukaryotic cell growth, development, and metabolism. Although TOR is extremely significant to plant cells growth and metabolism, little is still understood about TOR signaling within plants. As such, my project proposal investigates Asparaginyl tRNA synthetase 1 (NRS1) and its likelihood as an amino acid sensor that can stimulate TOR pathways and its importance for plant development. Comprehending how plants can sense the presence of […]

Noah Epstein

Iron sulfur enzymes perform some of lifes most challenging chemical transformations, but how these enzymes function is largely unknown. I will be researching the structure, reactivity, and reduction/oxidation properties of a particular iron sulfur enzyme, the hybrid cluster protein (HCP), whose physiological function is unknown despite its presence in all domains of life. One goal of my research is to investigate how the structure of HCP dictates its reactivity towards a variety of substrates. A hallmark of HCP is the presence of an atypical iron-sulfur cluster (dubbed the hybrid cluster) […]

Curtis Beck

In mammals, the Polycomb Repressive Complexes 1 and 2 (PRC1, PRC2) play crucial roles in maintaining gene expression patterns that enforce cell differentiation during embryonic development. Both complexes silence genes by post-translationally modifying the histone tails of nucleosomes, the smallest structural unit of chromatin. PRC1 plays a role in chromatin compaction by histone ubiquitination, whereas PRC2 reduces expression at the transcriptional level by histone methylation. The importance of these two complexes is emphasized by the fact that mutations in either complex results in embryonic lethality. While PRC1 and PRC2 are […]