Which grant that you received do you want to talk about?
Summer URG

Please provide a brief summary of your research.
My project investigated why certain tissues are more susceptible to protein-misfolding diseases like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s Disease. I identified genes that alter the ability to maintain protein homeostasis differently in different tissues. I use C. elegans, a microscopic nematode with a short lifespan and transparent body that allows me to visually watch individual proteins with colorful tags. My project’s findings illustrate that while maintaining protein homeostasis is essential to every tissue, individual components can differ from tissue to tissue, contributing to different susceptibilities to protein-misfolding diseases.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
I’m interested in the biological processes underlaying aging and age-related diseases. My project gets to the heart of this by looking at proteins, the basic molecular machines that carry out the processes we need to survive. Many labs focus on studying an individual tissue, and this project allowed me to more broadly understand how tissues vary. I also wanted to learn to work with a new model organism and C. elegans are frequently used to study aging biology.

What made you interested in pursuing (interdisciplinary) research more broadly?
Coming to Northwestern, I was interested in science but didn’t want to practice medicine. I wasn’t sure what other paths I could pursue until the professors in some of my earliest science classes talked about their research. I was excited to learn that I could apply the basic principles I was learning in class to discover something new to improve the world. When I started doing research, I was shocked that you could physically perform experiments and investigate interesting questions about biological concepts as a career!

Describe your experiences with research thus far. Was it tricky? What skills do you think you’ve gained?
Through my research project, I’ve gained technical skills in learning new genetic techniques and working with a different model organism. I’ve also learned to efficiently plan, carry out, troubleshoot, and communicate a research project, with the support of mentors. I grew through navigating challenges, like having to pivot my project midway through the summer due to unexpected changes in mentorship.

Any tips or advice you have for students similar to you that are interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Jump in! You never know until you try it, and even if research isn’t your thing long-term, there are valuable skills to be gained. You are never stuck–you can always change research projects and labs if you discover interests in a different field, or if the environment isn’t a good fit. The hardest step is the first one!

What is something that you could give a 10 min presentation on right off the cuff?
“The Big 5” (Pacific Northwest Trees)

What was your favorite childhood story (written, spoken, or film)?
My Neighbor Totoro

Which grant that you received do you want to talk about?
Summer URG

Please provide a brief summary of your research.
My SURG project investigated how musical timbre impacts the perception and memory of harmonic progressions. Working with Bienen professor Daniel Shanahan, I used the summer grant period to design the experiment, run it, analyze the results, and start a paper based on the findings. For the main experimental task, participants listened to chord progressions played by two contrasting timbres (electric guitar or piano) and then rearranged shapes (corresponding to each chord) to match what they heard. Half the progressions were nominally rock progressions, the other half followed classical music theory conventions. The aim of the experiment was to see if participants would make particular errors when reordering the chords and whether timbre/harmonic congruence would have any correlation with these errors.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
I’ve always had a big interest in harmony and I think especially after taking the Bienen music theory sequence, I became more curious how our perception of harmony may be impacted by other contextual factors.

What made you interested in pursuing (interdisciplinary) research more broadly?
Being a dual degree student, I’ve balanced coursework the last few years in two very different academic areas—cognitive/behavioral sciences and music. I’ve known for a while that I wanted to find a way to bridge my two interests, and I’m really fortunate that Northwestern is one of very few schools in the country with a music cognition department.

Describe your experiences with research thus far. Was it tricky? What skills do you think you’ve gained?
This summer was my first time ever conducting research and I definitely grew a lot from the experience. I’ve struggled a lot in the past with self-efficacy, and the research process overall helped me gain confidence in my academic abilities. More specifically, I grew more comfortable engaging with academic papers, programming in R, and working with basic stats procedures.

Any tips or advice you have for students similar to you that are interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Don’t be intimidated and if you’re thinking about reaching out to a professor, just do it! Also try to be honest with yourself and pursue something you’re actually interested in; it will make the whole process more rewarding and enjoyable.

What is something that you could give a 10 min presentation on right off the cuff?
Kilwins Ice Cream Flavors Ranked Worst to Best (and what your favorite flavor says about you)

What was your favorite childhood story (written, spoken, or film)?
Ratatouille (still my favorite :))

Which grant that you received do you want to talk about?
Summer URG

Please provide a brief summary of your research.
I studied the genetics behind the drug resistance of parasitic nematodes. Parasitic nematodes impact an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide. Benzimidazoles, one of the primary drug classes used to treat parasitic nematode infections, target beta-tubulin in the microtubules in nematode cells. There is one gene that encodes for beta-tubulin that has been extensively studied, ben-1, but there are also five other genes that also encode for beta-tubulin that haven’t been as studied: tbb-1, tbb-2, tbb-4, tbb-6, and mec-7. I used CRISPR to knock out these genes in the model organism C. elegans in two different backgrounds, a wild-type and one with a ben-1 deletion already, and then conducted a variety of experiments to determine whether the gene has been deleted. Once that was confirmed, I ran a high-throughput assay to investigate the implications of these gene deletions on drug resistance by exposing these mutant strains to Albendazole, a specific benzimidazole. Data analysis is still underway, being done through R, but as of right now, it appears that only mutant strains with the ben-1 deletion were resistant to Albendazole.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
One of my core values is the dedication to a project that feels like it has a large impact on the broader community. This is why I decided to dedicate my life to value systems such as those imposed by Effective Altruism, which focuses on making your career have the greatest impact it can possibly have. As an overall fairly neglected issue and one that impacts billions of people, I was honored to receive this project when I first started in my lab under the Posner grant.

What made you interested in pursuing (interdisciplinary) research more broadly?
I’ve always been interested in many different things. As a STEM kid, I did theatre in high school and even won an art award. I’m a double major in Psychology and Biology simply because I love both. I think some of the best projects are the ones that surpass the boundaries of multiple disciplines, and that is often what leads to the most learning.

Describe your experiences with research thus far. Was it tricky? What skills do you think you’ve gained?
It was definitely tricky. There is a lot of room for error and many of the techniques we use need to be developed over time. I’ve definitely messed up a couple of times, but I put in the work to fix the mistakes. I’ve gained not only the ability to do these techniques, but also the ability to think more critically about genetics and my project. I’ve also gained an extensive network of grad students, post docs, lab techs, and my PI, which I am forever grateful for. I’ve learned a lot about myself, too – as a FGLI student, I’ve felt like I am behind of all of my peers ever since I started university. However, doing this project has helped me gain confidence in the work I am doing while I am an undergrad at Northwestern.

Any tips or advice you have for students similar to you that are interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Get out there. I cannot begin to express how important it is to just get out there and try new things, even if you don’t feel like you are good enough. You never know until you try and you put in the work. I started as a team of many undergraduates, all of whom were much more qualified than I am. However, I put in the work and the dedication to my project and I am now the singular undergraduate on my project and am writing the paper. It is insane what can be accomplished if you just put in the work.

What would you name a boat if you had one?
S.S. Allison after my father (RIP) and I’s middle name

What is something that you could give a 10 min presentation on right off the cuff?
The lore of the appalachian mountains

What was your favorite childhood story (written, spoken, or film)?
The one that goes “there were 10 in the bed and the little one says “roll over”” because my mom used to read that to my brothers and I every night

Which grant that you received do you want to talk about?
Summer URG

Please provide a brief summary of your research.
My research this summer focused on determining whether mixtures of peptide amphiphiles (PAs) with the peptide sequences A2G2 and V2A2 would result in molecularly mixed or phase-separated (non-mixing) supramolecular nanofiber assemblies. To test this, I utilized variable temperature polarized light microscopy (VT-PLM) to record the temperature at which PA fiber assemblies transitioned into spherical micelles. This transition temperature was denoted by the complete loss of birefringence signal, produced by anisotropic nanofiber assemblies, indicating a complete transition to isotropic spherical micelles.

Based on previous work, the A2G2 peptide sequence is known to form weak β-sheets that produce less cohesive nanofibers, leading to lower transition temperatures. In contrast, the V2A2 sequence is known to form strong β-sheets and more cohesive nanofibers, resulting in higher transition temperatures. Thus, increases in mol % composition of A2G2-based PAs mixed with V2A2-based PAs were expected to decrease cohesion within fiber nanostructures and therefore decrease the transition temperature. This trend was seen in my past work on mixtures of A2G2E2 with V2A2E2 PAs and A2G2E4-GIKVAV with V2A2E4-GIKVAV PAs, which indicated some degree of mixing between the PA pairs.

I chose to further analyze this trend by altering the equivalents of NaOH added to PA mixtures of the A2G2E4-GIKVAV with V2A2E4-GIKVAV PAs, which were originally prepared with 4 equivalents of NaOH. This mixture was selected in particular to better analyze the effect of epitopes like GIKVAV on the mixing of PAs. As greater equivalents of NaOH tend to reduce cohesion within a fiber assembly and therefore reduce the transition temperature, I was curious to see if the same transition temperature trend would persist in mixtures of 3 and 3.5 equivalents of NaOH as well. Under VT-PLM, the same trend in transition temperature was observed for all equivalents of NaOH, noted by a more rapid decrease in birefringence signal intensity with increasing % A2G2E4-GIKVAV. In addition, for the 30% and 50% A2G2E4-GIKVAV samples at all NaOH equivalents, there appeared to be multiple inflection points along the heating profiles; however, these inflections became less distinct with greater equivalents of NaOH. These inflection points suggested that there was a two-phase mixture at intermediate compositions of the two PAs, i.e., the appearance of a miscibility gap at lower equivalents of NaOH. Therefore, this further confirmed that rather than PA mixtures forming either fully phase-separated or completely molecularly mixed fiber assemblies, there seemed to be an upper limit on the degree of mixing between the different PAs.

To add a little context for the photos – this is a photo of the birefringence signal detected from various fiber assembly mixtures of peptide amphiphiles under a polarized light microscope (PLM).

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
When I first looked into doing research, I came across the Stupp lab group’s 2021 Science paper on spinal cord regeneration utilizing peptide amphiphile assemblies. I was almost immediately sold on wanting to learn more about peptide amphiphiles and how they could be manipulated to perform such amazing feats in medicine. With my project, I had the opportunity to not only look into the mechanisms involving mixtures of peptide amphiphiles but specifically those containing one of the two epitope sequences used in the spinal cord regeneration study. Suffice to say, my project entailed an amazing and fascinating first experience in research.

What made you interested in pursuing (interdisciplinary) research more broadly?
I had never done research in the past, so I was quite curious to see what it would entail. I also have a passion for chemistry, and I was always interested in conducting some kind of lab work in the future.

Describe your experiences with research thus far. Was it tricky? What skills do you think you’ve gained?
I am really glad that I had the opportunity to conduct research in such a wonderful lab group! I learned a lot about how important and helpful working with other researchers can be for fostering new ideas for a project. I often had to present my research at subgroup meetings, and the feedback that I received from other lab members helped a lot to both answer some of the questions that came up in my project as well as provide new approaches to answering my research question. These subgroup meetings also allowed me to develop my communication and presentation skills to best explain my findings to a more unfamiliar audience. I also worked on a paper describing some of my discoveries, which allowed me to practice reading scientific papers as well as better understand my own project overall.

I would say the trickiest part about my research was making sure to keep a detailed record of my previous data and samples. Throughout the course of my project, I had made a ton of samples of various buffer solutions and peptide amphiphiles that had been used in different experiments at different times. Thus, I learned to take very thorough notes during my sample prep and data collection to make my experiments more easily reproducible.

Any tips or advice you have for students similar to you that are interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Definitely do it! It can be a very rewarding as well as eye-opening experience into different fields of work that not many people get to witness first-hand or even be a part of. I think research is also a great way to see how what you learn in classes gets applied to real world issues/questions.

What would you name a boat if you had one?
Larry

What was your favorite childhood story (written, spoken, or film)?
Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax

What was a memorable interaction that you had on campus this week?
Said “Hi” to my former organic chemistry lab TA and he remembered me 🙂

Which grant that you received do you want to talk about?
Summer URG

Please provide a brief summary of your research.
My SURG project entailed writing a dramatic play, centered around the topics of immigration, wealth inequality, and cultural perceptions of Colombians in upper-middle-class Eastern coast communities. This creative project required in-depth research into the history of immigration in the United States, financial and demographic trends among Colombian immigrant families, and the predominant factors that influence the socioeconomic statuses among those families, as it pertains to literature, film, and the historical and socioeconomic context of these issues.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
As a Latino journalist and undergraduate at the Medill School of Journalism & Integrated Marketing Communications, I came across some prevalent data indicating both the rising rates of Latino immigrants to the United States and wealth inequalities among different groups. I began to ask myself questions such as why are Latinos continually stereotyped across the media? Why has there historically been a lack of Latino representation in the film and television industry? What is driving the discrepancies in cross-generational wealth and how is race rooted in these issues?

Despite the major presence of Latino immigrants in the United States, many migrant groups continue to be marginalized and mistreated. I was interested in subverting the stereotypical narratives we’ve seen in pop culture and examining subtextual elements of class and privilege through the lens of immigration in upper-middle-class Eastern coast communities.

Henry Godinez, who served as my faculty sponsor for this project, attended a performance of my debut play last spring, which I actually wrote through a 2022 SURG. I was already a fan of Godinez’ work in Latino theatre so hearing his praise and support for my writing was very inspiring, and it was an honor to work with him on my 2023 SURG.

What made you interested in pursuing (interdisciplinary) research more broadly?
I completed a 2022 SURG, writing a Latinx social justice play that was selected by an SPP Committee and produced by The Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for The Performing Arts this past spring, with my 2022 SURG faculty sponsor and Tony Award Winner David Catlin serving as the faculty mentor for this production. After seeing the success of this project, I was inspired to pursue another SURG and write my next play, conducting research for it on topics such as discrepancies in cross-generational wealth and class.

Describe your experiences with research thus far. Was it tricky? What skills do you think you’ve gained?
Like any creative or artistic project, research will always have obstacles that arise, but learning how to overcome adversity has helped me gain invaluable skills and empowered me to grow as a writer, scholar, and human in profound ways.

I’m particularly grateful to the Office of Undergraduate Research for the amazing opportunities I’ve been able to pursue during my time at Northwestern.

Any tips or advice you have for students similar to you that are interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Pursue what you’re passionate about and above all, WRITE! I’ve had the privilege of having some incredible mentors who have been integral to my intellectual, creative, and artistic growth, and have encouraged me to continue writing even after the grant period. I would recommend first identifying your area of interest to find the right mentor who can help you develop your passion project and refine your work through a SURG.

What would you name a boat if you had one?
Buena Hora

What is something that you could give a 10 min presentation on right off the cuff?
New Girl

If your (speaking) voice were an instrument, what do you think it would be?
Acoustic Guitar

What was your favorite childhood story (written, spoken, or film)?
Up

What was a memorable interaction that you had on campus this week?
Volunteering at a food pantry with RUF friends or catching up with my sophomore year roommate on the way to a meeting for my Latin dance group, Dale Duro!