Mai Dang is a rising junior at Pomona College. As an undergraduate, she conducts research in the Negritto lab, where she investigates factors Rad 4, Rad 3, and Rad 30 in budding yeast to elucidate their role in Non-Homologous End Joining, a major pathway for the repair of double-strand breaks.   At UCLA, Mai is working with Dr Daniel Kamei in the department of Bioengineering. The Kamei Lab works on improving Lateral-Flow Immunoassays, a point-of-care diagnostic device. They have previously pioneered a technique called ACE-LFA, in which Aqueous Two Phase Systems are exploited to pre-concentrate biomarkers by minimizing the volume of the phase into which the target partitions, increasing the LFA’s limit-of-detection. The Kamei Lab also uses the system to introduce colorimetric substrates that increase test & control line intensity. While exciting results have been obtained, the Kamei Lab would like to be able to theoretically predict the optimal signal enhancement reagent for a range of ATPS combinations. The Lab has therefore developed a thermodynamic model to predict signal enhancement reagent partitioning. The goal of Mai’s project is to evaluate the model by measuring the partition coefficients of two colorimetric substrates in two different ATPSs and comparing them with predicted values. Subsequently, she will investigate any correlation between enhancement reagent partitioning and ACE-LFA performance by running ACE-LFA trials with the four conditions.   Mai would like to thank the Amgen foundation, Dr Daniel Kamei, and all the members of the Kamei Lab for investing time and resources towards her growth as a researcher.