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Research Assistant @ Zipursky Labs

With medicine and public health as our outlets of service, PCH strives to address social determinants of health and promote the holistic well-being of service recipients, all while uplifting and learning from the voices of the communities we serve alongside. Our organization has empowered under-resourced and historically marginalized communities here in Los Angeles and in the Philippines by providing free health education and clinical services. Over the last 30 years, PCH has grown to include 7 components dedicated to community outreach and cultivating a supportive space for the development of socially-informed healthcare professionals that strive to improve community health through equity, advocacy, and service.

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This organization is the one of the most influential experience in my journey towards medicine and healthcare.

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Research Assisstant at Zipursky Labs

Tasks: 

  • literature searches to determine methodology for computational analysis and brain registration

  • literature reviews to explore the Drosophila melanogaster visual system and biological mechanisms for synaptic connectivity  

  • Will begin benchwork in Fall 2021!

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About the lab:  (from Zipursky Laboratory's website)

"Our laboratory studies how the neural circuits are formed during development. These circuits are complex with many different neuronal cell types interconnected by precise patterns of synaptic connections. ... We are interested in identifying the cellular recognition molecules that specify interactions between neurites, axons and dendrites, ultimately leading to the formation of synaptic connections between them. Historically, we have studied this problem in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. This system is amenable to analysis using incisive genetic tools, robust RNA-sequencing approaches and live imaging. Furthermore, the patterns of synaptic connectivity, the connectome, have been determined for large parts of the fly brain at high resolution. In more recent work, we have initiated a study to identify molecules that mediate synaptic specificity in the mouse, using a combination of high throughput RNA sequencing and CRISPR technology."

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