I am a PhD focused on the development of therapies to improve outcomes in patients with immune-related disease. From my background working in a computational lab prior to my graduate studies, along with the immunology training and additional honing of computational techniques and data analysis that I developed in the Shah lab, I look forward to pursing a data driven approach to meaningful drug development.As the first graduate student in a new lab, I have been highly involved in both research and lab operations. I served as the lead researcher on projects concerning the modulation of immune cells to improve outcomes in inflammatory autoimmune disease. These projects include testing of conditions to improve quality of cells from cell manufacturing [1] and the development of novel injectable biomaterials to modulate cells in vivo with extensive characterization of the resulting immunological changes [2]. Based on these projects, I was highly involved in writing several successful grants, including individual F31 and ARCS scholar awards, as well as R03 and R01 grants for the lab.To accomplish these projects, I employed a variety of techniques including flow cytometry and both single cell and bulk next-generation sequencing techniques to understand changes in immune cell function, with specific focus on T cells and dendritic cells. During this time, I also served as a mentor to several undergraduates who headed sub-projects underneath me which helped me develop techniques to ensure that information and expectations were being communicated effectively and goals were achieved in a timely manner.I am excited to continue to dive into the development of medicines and techniques to harness the immune system to help treat patients. Skilled in:- Cell culture and complex animal models (e.g., Fate-mapping mice)- Flow Cytometry- ATACseq and RNAseq- Data Analysis, including results from NGS techniques- Immunology- Programming (Python, R)Publications:[1] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D0BM00622J[2] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202202720