Aaditee Kudrimoti

Western political scientists and multilateral development banks (MDBs) are speculating about the extent to which Chinese development finance (CDF), specifically via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may support or challenge the Western-led global economic order. To determine the extent to which Chinese-led projects may conflict with Western liberal policy agendas and the global economic status quo, as well as whether or not BRI actions may create a debt trap for borrowers, we need more data on how the Chinese conduct development infrastructure projects on the ground, and how they […]

Sabrina Lu

Empirical studies have revealed a wide range of racial and gender disparities in the American criminal justice system. People of color, specifically Black males, make up the majority of our prison population, but incarceration is vastly influenced by historical and societal ills that negatively impact minority groups. Through racial profiling and other forms of explicit and implicit biases, society creates and perpetuates stereotypes of people of color as deviant, dangerous, and criminal. Gender stereotypes also impact perceptions of criminality. Aggression in males aligns with masculinity and is consistent with the […]

Josette Miller

Have you ever fallen for a hoax? And if so, were you being exploited because of your gullibility or were you consciously or unconsciously complicit in your own beguilement? Who benefited from tricking you: the people who sold you the hoax, the audience, or the actors of the hoax itself? My research follows this line of questioning in an anthropological investigation into exploitation and agency in nineteenth-century America. Specifically, I will be examining hoax journalism and freak shows as avenues of mass media based exploitation. Through applying anthropological theories of […]

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 […]

Andrew Hong

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers nationwide, due to the dearth of effective treatment options. While KRAS oncogenic mutations are ubiquitous in pancreatic cancer, there is no anti-KRAS therapeutic for routine clinical use. One promising alternative may be boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), which entails the irradiation of internalized boron atoms in cancer cells. In particular, carborane compounds are clinically promising for serving as effective cytotoxic BNCT agents. Therefore, I propose to improve upon current carboranyl molecules to develop a highly boronated dendrimer which will be conjugated to […]

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 […]

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 […]

Elise Rio

Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative intracellular pathogen that causes disease in immunocompromised individuals and pregnant women. Its life cycle is well characterized. The pathogen enters phagocytes of the immune system, including macrophages and dendritic cells. As seen from in vitro studies using macrophages, upon entry into phagocytes L. monocytogenes escapes the vacuole and grows in the cytosol thus avoiding phagosome-mediated killing. Mutants of L. monocytogenes in which the Listeriolysin O (LLO) gene has been deleted lack the ability to escape the phagosome into the host cell cytoplasm and are avirulent, […]

Andrew Liao

Cell division is a highly regulated process through which organisms generate new cells. From a single fertilized egg, a whole organism is developed after many cell divisions have occurred. Since the majority of these divisions are mitosis, errors in mitosis can cause lethal embryos due to loss of genetic material. Therefore, it is crucial for a mitotic cell to propagate the genome faithfully. My research focuses on the machinery that distributes the genome during cell division. This machinery includes the kinetochore, the protein complex that connects chromosomes to microtubules during […]

Gwyneth Hutchinson

Circadian rhythms are daily rhythms generated by all mammalian tissues that are critical to numerous physiological functions. These rhythms have far-reaching influence on the brain and periphery; therefore, circadian regulation of hormones is essential for normal functioning, and disruptions to circadian timing (e.g. irregular sleep patterns, nighttime light exposure, etc.) have detrimental health consequences. Labor and birth are reproductive events that exhibit a circadian rhythm by which human labor and birth tend to cluster during nighttime. Melatonin is a hormone secreted at night that is inhibited by light. We theorize […]