Mina is a rising senior studying biology at the University of Pennsylvania. During her sophomore year, she worked remotely with Dr. Knoepfler from UC Davis and researched about stem cells and cell therapies. Throughout her junior year, she worked with cancer cells and proteins at Dr. Yang’s lab at UPenn.

As part of the Amgen Scholars Program at UCLA this summer, Mina is conducting research at Dr. April Pyle’s lab, which involves studying the differentiation process of human pluripotent stem cells into muscle stem cells as well as the regenerative nature of muscle stem cells, which can potentially serve as a treatment for diseases involving muscular dystrophy, such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Mina’s research question focuses on the maturation of skeletal muscle progenitor cells (SMPCs) into muscle stem cells within this differentiation process. Specifically, she is working to see if the addition of ligands, including androgen, estrogen, and glucocorticoids, to SMPCs will promote maturation towards the muscle stem cell stage.

Mina would like to thank the Amgen Scholars Program, the Pyle Lab, and her mentor Peggie for an amazing opportunity to further her research interests this summer.