Project History
Graduate Research
Collaboration with All Babies in Southeast Sweden cohort
University of Florida
Advisors: Dr. Eric Triplett & Dr. Johnny Ludvigsson
January 2020 - May 2024
Summary of Cohort
17,055 general population infants born between 1997-1999 were enrolled and followed for biological sample collection and disease diagnosis
Summary of Results
Gut microbial dysbiosis was observed in infants who later developed celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, or abdominal pain up to 22 years after initial stool collection.
Computational Experience
Developed universal R-programs as standard operating procedures for the analysis of correlation between 16s rRNA relative and absolute abundance and disease status.
Optimized pipeline for in-house DNA sequencing of NGS sequencing involving base-calling, quality score assessment, demultiplexing, and read classification processing.
Wetlab Experience
Processed 610 stool samples involving bacterial DNA extraction, purification, and amplification and ran sample libraries through Nanopore’s GridION for both transcriptomics and metagenomics.
Trained five mentees and streamlined protocols to ensure self-sufficiency with minimal oversight for DNA extraction processing.
Organized seven -80C freezers to ensure safe storage and maintenance of project samples, including stool samples, breastmilk, and serum samples.
Collaboration with The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young Cohort
University of Florida
Advisors: Dr. Eric Triplett & Dr. Kristian Lynch
September 2023 - May 2024
Monthly stool samples, collected from 4 to 48 months old, were analyzed from 370 TEDDY participants who either developed celiac disease autoantibodies or remained healthy.
Conference Presentations
“Longitudinal differences in gut microbial development in those with future CDA [Celiac Disease Autoimmunity]”. The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young Study Meeting. Tampa, FL, March 2024.
“Gut Bacteria Association with future CDA [Celiac Disease Autoimmunity]”. The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young Study Meeting. Tysons Corner, VA, October 2023.
Computational Experience
Differences in the relative abundance of genera was observed both in chronological age differences as well as differences right before autoantibody development.
Testing a Novel COVID-19 Antibody Assay using an At-Home Saliva Collection Kit
University of Florida
Advisors: Dr. Eric Triplett
September 2023 - May 2024
Summary of Cohort
1,810 saliva samples were collected longitudinally from 774 participants to determine the rate of COVID-19 antibody development either through symptomatic or asymptomatic exposure.
Wetlab Experience
Optimized protocol for a team of collaborators to safely handle saliva samples during collection and analysis for COVID-19 virus and antibody detection. The protocol included developing standards for at-home sample collection, postal delivery, sterilization, purification, and assay optimization.
Processed 1,810 saliva samples through ELISA and Lumit immunoassays for detection of COVID-19 antibodies.
Trained seven undergrads on both Lumit immunoassay and ELISA assays for longitudinal detection of antibodies for each participant.
Research Technician
Computational Biology Research Technician
California Institute of Technology
Advisors: Dr. Dev Majumdar & Dr. David Baltimore
August 2017 - September 2018
RNA-Seq data processing and visualization
Analyzed RNA-seq data of Mus musculus to determine the effect of knocking down various genes on the splicing of short introns by the creation of Python pipelines for the extraction and processing of reads and automatic generation of images through R and IGV (Integrative Genomics Viewer).
Developed a GUI Shiny app to generate interactive graphs visualizing the presence or expression of genes after knock-out experiments. After each experiment’s reads were processed, data was automatically uploaded to the Shiny App for streamlined analysis by collaborators.