Angela Gao

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Meet UCLA senior, Angela Gao, who is majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Angela is was recently selected as a Undergraduate Collegiate Rapid Fire finalist for the Women in Engineering 2020 Conference. Awarded to 10 undergraduate students nationwide to present research at the world’s largest conference for women engineers with over 10,000 attendees.

Angela is also currently a part of our UC Leadership Excellence Through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS) program.

 

How did you first get involved in your research project?

In freshman year, one of my friends from my Chemistry class suggested that I participate in undergraduate research. I emailed a few professors whose work is in the field of robotics. When some of the professors didn’t respond to me, I personally knocked on their doors to ask for a conversation. Even though I had no previous experience in research or engineering, Prof. Ankur Mehta and graduate student mentor Wenzhong Yan were generous to allow me to start on a research project at the Laboratory for Embedded Machines and Ubiquitous Robots (LEMUR). At LEMUR, I performed controlled experiments that tested the strain of supercoiled polymer actuators, which were integrated in a novel controller manufactured using origami techniques.

 

How would you describe your research experience at UCLA?

My research experience at UCLA is one of the most fulfilling experiences in my life. As a first-generation college student, I found it challenging at first to understand the research process, as it is vastly different from taking classes and it is easy to get lost in a world full of technical terminologies. In my sophomore year, I was fortunate to be selected as a UC LEADS scholar advised by Prof. Veronica Santos at the Biomechatronics Lab. Under the direct guidance of Prof. Santos, I learned to be a researcher who can find support from my lab-mates and resolve problems associated with a novel research project. The faculty and staff from UC LEADS are incredibly helpful by allowing me to participate in journal clubs, practice my presentation skills, develop my leadership skills, and attend national conferences for undergraduate students. Those experiences gave me opportunities that I needed to grow both as a person and as an independent researcher.

 

What is one piece of advice you have for other students thinking about getting involved in research?

Place kindness above getting a research position. In academia, research is performed by people who have hearts and souls. From my experience, it is true that many people who learn to be highly skilled in research will become great researchers. However, great researchers who are also kind will become excellent researchers.

 

What are your future career goals?

When I had a summer research internship at UCSD advised under Prof. Mike Tolley, I realized how much I enjoy basic science, particularly biology. As a result, I decided that in graduate school, I would like to pursue a PhD in the Biomedical Sciences even though my current major is Mechanical Engineering. I am specifically interested in investigating the neurobiology of neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. In the next 50 years, I believe that the field of Neuroscience will be in great demand in order to relieve medical bills for the 1 in 6 people in the world population who will be 65 or older by 2050. I hope to expand the field of Neuroscience by enabling greater collaboration among neuroscientists and roboticists. The integration of knowledge of the human brain and artificial intelligence seems to be a promising next frontier of research that may revolutionize the way we think about intelligence.

Emma Dawson

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Meet recent UCLA graduate, Emma Dawson, who graduated this past Spring 2020 in Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics. As an undergraduate Emma worked in the lab of Dr. Michael Teitell, whose research involves pediatric pathology.

Emma recently published her first-author paper in Scientific Reports titled “Stable retention of chloramphenicol-resistant mtDNA to rescue metabolically impaired cells”, which was previously published in the UCLA Undergraduate Science Journal.

How did you first get involved in your research project?

I started working in the Michael Teitell lab a few weeks into my undergraduate career at UCLA, after having reached out to Dr. Teitell the summer prior to starting my freshman year. Additionally, I had joined the HHMI-Pathways to Success Program, directed by Dr. Tracy Johnson, that helped prepare me to ask novel scientific questions/plan experiments to test those questions. Between Dr. Johnson and my direct mentors in the Teitell lab, Dr. Alexander Patananan and Alexander Sercel, I had great mentorship and advice while getting involved in my first independent research project that I worked on through all four years at UCLA. The project I worked on involved a cool phenomenon in which cells will transfer mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) directly to another cell, known as mitochondrial transfer. This can be done as a means of promoting tissue recovery or is hijacked by cancer cells to promote cancer progression. This is a new, and very exciting field, that I feel fortunate to have contributed to through my recent publication developing a high-throughput pipeline for studying mitochondrial transfer in cells.

How would you describe your research experience at UCLA?

My research experiences at UCLA have completely changed my life. I was involved in research programs including the HHMI-Pathways to Success, the CARE Scholars Program, and the MARC program that all helped me succeed as a scientist. Additionally, my lab mentors and lab advisor, Dr. Michael Teitell, gave me the freedom and the confidence to ask novel questions in the field and to perform exciting experiments as a part of an independent project in the lab. These research experiences solidified my desire to continue academic research and apply for a PhD in biology.

What is one piece of advice you have for other students thinking about getting involved in research?

My biggest advice to students interested in getting involved in research is to just do it! Students have to reach out to professors and take the initiative to join a lab. There are so many resources on campus to help you find a lab and a lab environment that fit your needs. Students just have to take the initiative. And with that said, if you can join a lab earlier, rather than later, the better. I was only able to accomplish everything I did in my lab, because I was able to work and grow in that environment for four years. The longer you spend in a lab environment, the more you will get out of it.

What are your future career goals?

I am excited to be starting my PhD in the Biology program at MIT this fall. I could not be more thankful to all of my mentors that pushed me to succeed as an undergrad. I would not be where I am today without them. After my PhD, I hope to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship and ultimately, pursue a faculty position at an academic institution.