2013 Research Highlights

Researched genetic markers that may be indicative of schizophrenia by characterizing previously under-examined sources of variation within repetitive regions of the human genome.

Worked on the characterization of chromatin structure of short tandem repeat loci.

Characterized ERBB2 mutations in cancer cell lines.

Investigated effects of splicing variants and the transmembrane domain on MCL1’s movement within the cell.

Worked on the mechanism of action of a small molecule that suppresses cytokine-induced apoptosis in beta-cells.

Behaviorally and biochemically characterized a HDAC3-specific inhibitor with implications for PTSD treatment in a pre-clinical model of extinction memory formation.

Synthesized small-molecule inhibitors of cytokine-induced ß-cell apoptosis with improved metabolic stability.

Explored the dark matter of RNA-Seq by designing a new pipeline to isolate and analyze unaligned reads in RNA-Seq data from single-cells.

Designed an algorithm that normalizes different representations of large sequence polymorphisms in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Worked on the development of phosphonic acid fragments to target phosphatases.

Identified and validated regulation of a group of target genes by a mRNA binding protein relevant to Type 2 Diabetes.

Focused on creating predictive models to discover connections between genomic features and drug sensitivity.