- The Zappulla Lab Studies the RNP telomerase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to illuminate how it prevents genomic degradation and the molecules relevance to aging and cancer - Studies the mechanism of recruitment and activation of telomerase in the cell - Employs a CRISPR based yeast two-hybrid system to study protein-protein interactions and RNA-protein interactions- Design RNA constructs for wet-lab analysis

- Part of a team tasked with processing 500 human plasma samples for pre-clinical trials of a test for early-stage gastric cancer detection- Isolate and purify genomic material for qPCR analysis

- Tutored groups of 7-10 students in Honors General Chemistry

- Isolated Mycobacterium phage Cullens in Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2155, from an environmental sample - Elected to have my phage fully sequenced at Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute- Worked in bioinformatics to annotate genomes of bacteriophages Cullens and BlueCrab- Developed a lysogen of Phage Cullens - Created a poster for the Spring 2023 SEA PHAGES Symposium on the work of my cohort

- Cared for 20 campers between the ages of 3-4 years and 10-12 years old - Led campers in fun summer activities including but not limited to cooking classes, free swim, and arts and crafts- Effectively resolved conflicts between campers- Supervised the safe pick-up and returning of campers transported via bus services