• Assist VA Principal Investigator(s) with clinical trials by facilitating study start-up, audits, IRB meetings, and screening potential patients• Ensures compliance with study sponsor requirements, IRB policies, GCP guidelines, and federal regulations from VA• Tracks project milestones and maintains study progression with potential trials• Communication with the PI, CRO, PO, ISO, and HRPP during preparation of study documents for submissions to the VA• Maintains logs of protocol amendments, adverse events, revisions, and deviations that occur throughout the duration of the clinical study

• Handled the disposal of transgenic tomatoes into autoclaved bags to prevent them from reproducing• Processed tomatoes’ seeds in preparation for lab analysis• Performed DNA extraction to maintain the integrity of more than 30 tomato heirloom species• Collaborated with 5-6 colleagues in order to extract volatile substances from tomatoes• Oversaw and sustained the plant life cycle for over 500 tomato plants• Created a master mix that included TAQ, dNTP’s, DNA templates and primers in order to do polymerase chain reactions (PCR)• Received exposure to multi-channel pipetting, solution preparation, extractions of volatiles for elution and gel electrophoresis

• Prepared chemical reagents and equipment for each of the lab sessions• Handled the liquid and solid chemical disposals in accordance with waste compliance standards• Evaluated the quality of assignments for over 60 students

Supervised by Dr. Nemat Keyhani• Cultured spores for use in trials• Collected quantitative measures of the plants that were used during the trials• Assisted in the cultivation and care of tomato and bean plants hydroponically• Received exposure to competitive inhibition assays, dilution of materials, dissection of insects, inoculation of Lennox broths, autoclaving and incubation