I worked in Dr. Chana Kranzler’s lab studying the effects of phosphate limitation in the diatom family of Chaetoceros tenuissimus. In particular I was looking at how alkaline-phosphatase activity, a key producer of organic phosphate was altered in low phosphate conditions and in the presence of a viral infection pressure. I conducted enzymatic kinetics assays and assembled, organized, and analyzed the data in R.

For six semesters, I conducted independent research in the field of marine microbial ecology with Dr. Sheri Floge at Wake Forest University. My project centered on understanding how marine viruses that infect the cyanobacterium, Synechococcus, influence cell-cell aggregation and potentially, carbon export from surface to the deep waters of the ocean. During this time, I primarily used confocal microscopy to image, digitally process, and quantify impacts of virus infection on Synechococcus aggregation formation and ingestion rates of a dinoflagellate predator on Synechococcus. My experiments centered around the ingestion of the Synechococcus by a dinoflagellate predator. It was a challenge to figure out the best way to image the Syenchococcus for both when it was ingested by the predator (imaging through the dinoflagellate to count the number of prey inside) and for when it was free-living. Another challenge was to figure out the best way to image a large area of the slide while maintaining a clear image of both the predator and prey, which each are less than forty microns. Collaborating with the microscopy facility director, I was able through trial and error, to deduce the best parameters to accomplish our goals. This resulted in tile scans over sixty gigabytes that took over three hours to image, pushing the limits of the software and our computer. I then took these parameters and wrote a protocol for the confocal microscope, that we can now use in the future as a template to image Synechococcus or tweak the protocol to image other types of marine microbes. http://biology.wfu.edu/faculty-research/sheri-floge/

I spend a majority of my time working on data analytics on large data sets for WSRI's Apex Project, as well as project pipeline management to look for relevant government grant opportunities for the various scientists at the Institute.

Before college, my junior summer, I was an intern for five weeks at University of Cincinnati in the molecular biology department in an endocrinology lab, headed by Dr. Daniel Buccholz. His research team studies the effects hormones play in development using Xenopus laevus as a model organism. I learned skills such as DNA purification, PCR, and gel electrophoresis and my summer research experience inspired me to join Dr. Sheri Floge’s research laboratory my freshman year at Wake Forest University.