Project Progress

Summer 2026

This summer, I am spending 6 weeks full-time, in-person at the Bush Lab at UCSF's Parnassus Campus to conduct research for my project! In the lab, I am learning a ton of wet-lab practices and techniques.

I have been trained in:

• High-precision microdissection of embryonic mouse models across multiple developmental stages (E13.5 – E18.5), specifically isolating delicate primordial respiratory and upper gastrointestinal structures (trachea, bronchi, esophagus, and lungs).

• Tissue preservation and embedding techniques (including frozen specimen preparation) to maintain structural integrity for downstream histological analysis.

• Sectioning embedded tissues utilizing a cryostat to generate high-quality cross-sections for spatial tissue mapping.

• Utilized histological staining and immunofluorescence (IF) protocols to label specific cellular markers, target proteins, or structural features within developing tissues.

• Conducted data preprocessing, dimensionality reduction (PCA/UMAP), and cluster annotation, identifying distinct cell populations and detecting potential mutant-induced metaplasia through transcriptomic profiling.

May 2026 - Poster Presentation and Literature Review

The beginning of Summer marks the end of MARC ISR I! We ended the year with a poster presentation, that was super successful! It was great to see everyone's projects heading off to summer with a great plan and a lot to look forward to. I completed my literature review, which was a ton of work, but really rewarding to finish! I am really excited for this summer, as I will be spending 6 weeks working full-time for the Bush Lab. Lot's of cool research and updates coming!

April 28, 2026 - Lab Visit

Today, I got to check out the lab in-person! We had the day off of school for conferences, so I drove down to UCSF and spent the day in the Bush Lab. I attended a lab meeting, talked bioinformatics with Ace, and then even got to assist Dr Bush in an embryo dissection! I got to meet the other lab members, and everyone is super friendly. We also began talking about this summer, and it seems like I am going to be working in-person, which would be amazing!

Spring 2026

So far, my work with the Bush Lab has been great! Ace is awesome and I have already learned so much. This spring, I am spending time learning R (specifically Seurat and the preprocessing workflow for single-cell RNA sequencing data analysis) and reading a ton of papers to familiarize myself with what is already known about tracheal morphogenesis.

January 2026 - Mentor Connection

I finally found a mentor! I recently connected with Dr Jeffery Bush of the Bush Lab (UCSF Parnassus Campus), who let me know that Ace Lewis, a bioinformatics expert and researcher in his lab can serve as my mentor! The Bush Lab researches how cells interact and develop to come to form tissues, organs, and, ultimately, entire organisms. I could not be more thrilled about this opportunity and am so excited to get started!

December 2025 - Outreach Update

I totally underestimated the amount of work outreach would be. Over the past 2 months, I have sent over 50 emails, and had almost 20 meetings with potential mentors. I have refined my area of interest to stem cells and their potential role in regenerative medicine. This area is really exciting to me, and I hope to connect with a lab soon!

Fall 2025 - MARC Introduction

Fall 2025 marks the beginning of my MARC ISR journey! Over the next two years, I am hoping to conduct my own independent science research. I am particularly interested in developmental, cellular, and molecular biology. I hope that I can contribute to medical research that has real impacts on patient care and treatment.

I am planning on spending this semester refining areas of interest, reading papers, and beginning outreach!