As part of an undergraduate hypothesis crowdsourcing competition (Innovative Minds Partnering to Advance Curative Therapies), I and four other teammates developed the winning original hypothesis for the underlying cause of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. As part of our reward, we were invited to Dr. Timothy J. Nelson's lab to conduct research on our novel hypothesis.My main project involved filtering genetic variants in 218 whole genome sequencing samples, and searching for compound heterozygous and syngergistic heterozygous mutations within our hypothesized pathway. I also assisted with stem cell culturing for our in vitro experiment modeling heart development.

• Examined transposon (Tf1 and Hermes) integration sites in relation to nucleosome occupancy and Sap1 protein binding in fission yeast (S. pombe) as a ten-week independent research project• Wrote a program to align deep-sequencing data to transcription start sites in a specified base-pair window and produce graphs showing averaged profiles across the genome

• Led, marketed, and organized Scholars Program initiative for Medicine and Education, a trip to Boston for two groups of twelve students to network with and shadow alumni working in medicine and education• Proposed and implemented first promotional video of Scholars trip; filmed and edited as independent term-long project (see attached project)• Worked with a team of seventeen colleagues to develop and improve existing programs through discussion and feedback

• Produced casting reels for potential reality TV shows to be pitched to networks