https://selfgraduate.ku.edu/self-graduate-fellowship

Expanding my fundamental scientific knowledge and laboratory, critical thinking, and writing skills and applying them with biomedical research. Anticipated graduation date (PhD, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology): December 2027.After 6 years of research as a Research Assistant in a lab that looks for mechanisms of and treatment for cystic kidney disease, I joined the IGPBS program at KUMC to start my PhD. I am now a new member of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department, working in the lab of Dr. Jeroen Roelofs, where we study the basic biology of the regulation of proteasome activity. The proteasome is an essential molecular machine present in all branches of the tree of life, and its misactivity or dysregulation is implicated in human disease.I am also happy to be involved with the KUMC-Kansas City Student Research Forum planning group, which consists of more than ten two- to three-person teams who work together to plan an institutional research presentation conference/forum in the spring (see Volunteer section).In addition to academic and professsional goals—such as learning, critical thinking, and project managment—I will use this season of life to continue to improve my self leadership, including time management and personal resilience.

Jared Grantham Kidney Institute. Basic and pre-clinical research for polycystic kidney disease. Current experience: western blots, immunohistochemistry, cell culture, in-vivo drug intervention studies (mouse), animal colony maintenance (mouse), ELISA, 3-D cyst assays, PCR genotyping, qPCR.

In addition to undergraduate research, I was a lab assistant in the cell culture at my institution. Duties included aliquoting media, maintaining instruments, maintaining cell storage in liquid nitrogen, reporting to principal investigator, communicating with student researchers, and training new students in cell culture, aseptic technique, and the lab protocol.

Biology, chemistry, writing.Assisted students in achieving their potential by being a resource for information as well as holding sessions with them that teach them how to study and learn the subject with a goal of developing successful life-long study habits that cross disciplines. http://www.jewell.edu/academicachievement

I spent seven weeks learning and utilizing cell-attached current-clamp electrophysiology to examine changes in firing rate of neonatal retrotrapezoid nucleus chemosensitive neurons during exposure to hypercapnic and isocapnic acidosis in the lab of Dr. Dan Mulkey. This work contributes to the characterization of these neurons that will hopefully determine their role as primary chemoreceptors in the central chemosensitivity that drives breathing in response to changes in blood concentrations of carbon dioxide and/or protons.Here is a recent review from this lab on this topic: doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01240.2009. Dr. Mulkey Lab: http://pnbfiles.uconn.edu/PNB_Base/about/staff/facultysites/mulkey/Mulkey%20Lab%20main%20page.htmlPNB REU website: http://www.pnb.uconn.edu/research-experience-for-undergraduates-reu-program/

Working in the lab of Dr. José Manautou (Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Assistant Dean for Graduate Education and Research, UConn) with Dr. Amy Bataille (post-doctoral fellow), we observed the hepatotoxic effects of acetaminophen in mice. Our project for this summer research experience was to observe these effects in female mice of 10-16 weeks of age who did not express multidrug resistance-associated protein 4 (Mrp4 or Abcc4) compared to wild-type females who are naturally resistant to acetaminophen toxicity.Dr. Manautou Lab: http://pharmacy.uconn.edu/jose-manautou/PNB REU website: http://pnbfiles.uconn.edu/PNB_Base/reu/index.html

Made and sold handmade cards.

Various duties: Retrieved books from external return boxes and delivered them to the librarians for check-in. Received newly checked in books, sorted them on preliminary shelves, and placed books on the public shelves in their proper order. "Read" the shelves to make sure the books were in order so that patrons can easily find a book. Assisted patrons in finding materials. Assisted librarians in set-up of special programs. Maintained the books and shelves so that they are presentable. Responsible for closing procedures.

Accurately recorded stored chemicals and manufacturer information in Excel. Saved Material Safety Data Sheets to a shared folder and inserted into the chemical database as hyperlinks.