Ariana Frey is a bioengineering graduate student at the University of Washington, where she is creating tiny, simplified human hearts, shaped like macaroni pasta, that include both a blood vessel and heart muscle cells. Her goal is to use these tiny hearts to further study how and when endothelial cell dysfunction leads to heart disease, and how this function can be recovered.
Read MoreCecily Rosenbaum is a graduate student in Physical Chemistry in the University of Washington's Department of Chemistry. Her research focuses on identifying materials that can capture the light that solar panels can't, and use it to produce light that can be used by the panels.
Read MoreEmma Lederer is a second-year immunology graduate student at the University of Washington and researcher in the Dudakov Lab at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She works to develop therapeutics to improve thymic function as we age to decrease our chances of cancer, autoimmunity, and infection.
Read MoreEthan Mickelson graduated from Indiana University in 2022 with his degree in biochemistry, where he researched viral insulin-like peptides for diabetes treatment. Ethan is currently a 2nd year student in UW’s Bioengineering PhD program. His current research operates at the intersection of polymer chemistry and emergency medicine. Ethan aims to develop new polymer-based therapies for treating trauma victims with severe blood loss and impaired clot formation.
Read MoreJames Yoon is an atmospheric chemist who is fascinated by how plants can affect the atmosphere and the air we breathe through the gases they emit. To study this question, he uses computer simulations and satellites to better represent these gases and the chemistry they undergo in the atmosphere. Through this work, he hopes to better describe how biology and air quality interact.
Read MoreLarissa Robinson-Cooper uses antibodies to make the brain light up! She does this to determine how markers of Alzheimer’s disease can increase the likelihood of seizures.
Read MoreMelissa Gasser is a clinical psychology graduate student and researcher at the University of Washington.
Read MoreMonica Tschang is a neuroscience PhD student studying how the world of microbes inside our guts plays a role in how we respond to stress. She studies a pretty severe example of stress, as she is working to understand how gut microbes might drive symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in people exposed to explosives in areas of conflict.
Read MoreSara Khor is a graduate student at the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, And Economics Institute at the University of Washington. Her research explores the intersection of technology, decision making, and social impact.
Read MoreSydney Floryanzia is a chemical engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, where she works on tools and methods to better investigate how injured brain cells respond to therapeutics. Some of these tools include isolating specific brain cells of interest, using whole hemisphere brain slices, and lots of laser microscopy.
Read MoreTessa Code is a graduate student at the University of Washington and she works as a technician for the US Geological Survey Western Fisheries Research Center. Her research uses hydro-acoustics and light sensors to study the effect of artificial light on fish predator-prey dynamics in waterbodies around Seattle.
Read MoreViolet Sorrentino is a cell biology graduate student at the Fred Hutch, where she uses microscopic worms to study communication between two types of brain cells. The conversation between these cells helps maintain a happy and healthy brain, and she is working to define the molecular language these cells speak.
Read MoreRasika Venkataraman is a third-year graduate student at the University of Washington’s Department of Lab Medicine and Pathology. Her research focuses on studying a specific hereditary mutation in DNA that causes blood cancers. She aims to investigate how this mutation alters the environment in which the cancer cells develop and grow, to improve the treatment of blood cancer.
Read MoreKeenan Ganz is a graduate student in Remote Sensing at the University of Washington. He uses specialized cameras on satellites and drones to study forest health and wildfire. One day, Keenan wants to build an improved forecasting system to understand when and where wildfire will burn next.
Read MoreRory does research at the intersection of computation and biology. Sometimes this means using DNA as a hard drive to store digital data, and sometimes this means using electronics to automate biological experiments. Rory has spent the last 2 years developing open-source hardware and software with the aim of making biology and chemistry research more accessible, efficient, and equitable.
Read MoreSonya Jampel (she/her) is a Master’s in Public Health Student in Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She uses large birth and death certificate datasets to analyze the relationship between air pollution and infant mortality in order to inform policy and prevention solutions.
Read MoreSamantha Borje is a Molecular Engineering graduate student in the University of Washington, where she works at the Seelig Lab and Molecular Information Systems Lab. Her research focuses designing massive networks of DNA pieces. She aims to use these networks as diagnostic platforms, where the DNA pieces would set off different chain reactions depending on whether or not a medical sample contains markers for disease.
Read MoreKaylin Ellioff is a Pharmacology graduate student at the University of Washington, where she studies different chemicals found in cannabis and how they can be used to treat chronic pain.
Read MoreElizabeth Bonner is a PhD student studying age-related blood cancers at Fred Hutchison Cancer Center through the University of Washington’s Molecular and Cellular Biology Program. Bonner studies the most frequent mutation found in a group of age-related blood cancers, collectively called myelodysplastic syndromes, to understand how this mutation disrupts the production of blood cells.
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