I am working in Katya Heldwein's lab researching herpesvirus. I am studying host factors involved in nuclear egress of HSV-1, through the use of a genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen. I have completed my one year as a PREP scholar and am now continuing my work as a research technician.

I worked in Andrew Gordus' lab on studying Uloborus diversus brains. Self-guided learning of a computational volume rendering program used to segment and tag 3D structures of orb-weaver spider brain. Created visualizations based on those renders to be used in posters and future publications. I also worked on immunostaining of spider brain samples to eventually align them with my annotations.

Collected datasets on RSV trends from CDC Respiratory Surveillance System (NREVSS). Identified key points of interest based on highest current concentration of RSV cases. Analyzed sets of modern RSV sequences for mutations conserved throughout strains.

Cultivated Respiratory Syncitial Virus (RSV) to use for cell culture infection. Propagated various types of cell cultures for experimental use. Studied characteristics of RSV strains such as temperature stability and growth kinetics. Progressed towards finding potential vaccine candidates for RSV. Collaborated with multiple postdocs on smaller projects.