Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology @ UCLA, working at the intersection of bioengineering and healthcare
CURRENTLY ON REPEAT
DESIGN INSPIRATION
DATEDESCRIPTION
2024.12 – 2025.09Cogenesis, Inc.
Cogenesis, Inc.
We aimed to build a stem cell fate prediction platform starting with blood stem cells, collaborating with a lab from USC's Keck School of Medicine to develop classification models that distinguish long-term HSCs from short-term HSCs for optimizing blood transplant success. We were accepted into Founders Inc's Off Season program (1 of 50 out of 1,600+ applicants) and received non-dilutive funding from Startup UCLA. Then, we pivoted to an AI-powered cell image analysis platform. Ultimately, I learned a ton about startups and biotech entrepreneurship.
2024.10 – PresentBareBones
BareBones
Growing up with my grandmother who lost her ability to walk due to a hip fracture sparked my passion for addressing mobility and musculoskeletal health. Combined with my love for calisthenics and weightlifting, this inspired me to start BareBones Health, a student-run organization at UCLA to increase access to musculoskeletal care for underserved populations. We've since partnered with The Midnight Mission, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to provide free fitness and stretching classes at their Skid Row facility for former inmates, and individuals recovering from homelessness and addiction. Additionally, we participate in community health fairs, educating participants on posture, injury prevention, and maintaining musculoskeletal health. Our advisor is an orthopedic doctor and the assistant team physician for UCLA's baseball team.
DATEDESCRIPTION
2024.02 – 2025.09Intern @ Dee Sport Orthopedics
Intern @ Dee Sport Orthopedics
As an intern and a medical assistant, I gained a significant amount of exposure to both patient care and the inner workings of a private regenerative sports medicine practice. From taking patient histories, to charting in eClinical, to looking up CPT codes, to applying numbing agents to patients and preparing PRP injections, I developed a deep understanding of how regenerative medicine translates from research to clinical application.
2024.02 – 2024.09Volunteer @ Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Volunteer @ Cedars Sinai Medical Center
I volunteered at the Transplant and Orthopedic department at Cedars Sinai Beverly Hills as part of their Transforming Care at the Bedside Program. My responsibilities included providing companionship and delivering food to patients. I also worked on an internal data science project auditing the transplant unit's nurses' compliance to protocols for preventing hospital acquired injuries.
Throughout the past several years, I've shadowed a diverse range of healthcare providers, including surgeons in orthopedics, gastroenterology, plastics, spine, and cardiac surgery, as well as internal medicine physicians, and nurse practitioners.
DATEDESCRIPTION
2026.02 – PresentEngineering AI-Designed Biosensors for Neurodegeneration
Engineering AI-Designed Biosensors for Neurodegeneration @ The Jason Zhang Lab - UCLA
Developing novel proteins to detect and discover therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases.
Building Genetic Scorecards for iPSC derived Hematopoietic Stem Cells @ The Mikkola Lab - UCLA
Cord blood is the gold standard for blood stem cell transplants, but is inherently limited in supply because of its source. To develop an off-the-shelf HSC, I worked with researchers at the forefront of iPSC-derived HSCs and built computational genetic scorecards that compared the maturation of iPSC-derived HSCs with mature and nascent fetal HSCs, performing scRNA-seq across 20+ datasets from fetal liver, bone marrow, and cord blood.
2023.06 – 2023.08Engineering Plasmids with Mucin Protein to Modify Cell Adhesion
Engineering Plasmids with Mucin Protein to Modify Cell Adhesion @ The Morsut Lab - USC
Mucin proteins are heavily glycosylated macromolecules that can modulate cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion through their gel-forming properties and steric hindrance effects. I designed and engineered fluorescent bacterial plasmids encoding mucin proteins which were then transfected into mammalian cells.
2021.06 – 2021.08Simulating Tissue Morphogenesis
Simulating Tissue Morphogenesis @ The Morsut Lab
A critical challenge in tissue engineering is controlling the spatial organization and morphogenesis of multicellular structures. Using Python and CompuCell3D, I conducted in silico sensitivity analysis by systematically varying parameters including cell type conversion thresholds, cell motility, cell-cell adhesion strengths, and cell-to-medium adhesion coefficients. This analysis identified critical design modules for axial elongation and contributed to our bioRxiv preprint on programming mammalian cell aggregate elongation with synthetic gene circuits.
Recombinant Taq polymerase offers cost-effective alternatives to its commercially available variants, but requires optimization for reliable performance. To develop a scalable production system, I optimized expression and lysis protocols and benchmarked our crude extract against commercial standards. Additionally, I ran biochemical and metabolic assays to characterize a novel bacterial strain discovered during the optimization process.
