CARE Fellows

Priscila Aguilar is a second-year Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics student at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate, she conducts research in Dr. Gay Crooks’s lab. In the Crooks Lab, our focus lies in understanding the process of immune system development, both in its natural course and from pluripotent stem cells. Priscila’s research project involves investigating regulatory T cell function by studying the transcription factor forkhead box P3, FOXP3. Currently, she is working to characterize the effects of FOXP3 expression through isoform engineering, in which specific isoforms of the gene can be overexpressed in induced pluripotent stem cells. Her forthcoming experiments involve employing lentiviral engineering to specifically express one isoform of the FOXP3 gene. This work will be pivotal for understanding the potential of regulatory T cell (Treg) generation within the artificial thymic organoid (ATO) system and defining the role of this transcription factor in generating a suppressive cell type. Priscila would like to thank the Crooks Lab, particularly Dr. Gay Crooks, Anthony Azzun, and Lindsay Lathrop, for their invaluable mentorship and support. She would also like to thank the CARE Fellows Program for its support and the opportunity it provided for her to delve into research.

Aitana Allen-Perez is an undergraduate student studying Physiological Science at UCLA. She has always been fascinated with exploring the holistic effects of neurological aspects, including signal transmissions, cellular communication, and neurological disorders. She is currently working in the De Biase lab, where she assists postdoctoral fellow, Daniel Gray. Her lab focuses on microglia, which are brain immune cells that regulate neuron function through synapse engulfment and extracellular matrix remodeling, and how microglia in regions of the basal ganglia dopamine system express early inflammatory phenotypes. Through the De Biase lab, Aitana assists with cognitive training on mice that engages dopamine-dependent aspects of behavior to investigate beneficial effects on brain function. Her role is to also help collect and analyze data from these reward-based behavioral trainings to examine the impact on microglia, extracellular matrix, and synapse properties in the brain’s dopamine system. In addition to handling mice, she slices brain sections that are then immunohistochemically stained in order to visualize microglia, neuronal, synaptic, and ECM structures with confocal microscopy. Aitana would like to thank Dr. De Biase and her mentor, Daniel Gray, for giving her this opportunity to engage in undergraduate research. She would also like to thank the CARE Fellows Program for their continued support.

Helen Benitez is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Physiological Sciences and minoring in Global Health. She is a sophomore and a member of the PEERS program. She has been an undergraduate in Dr. Tzung Hsiai’s cardiovascular lab since the spring quarter of her first year. She is currently involved in a zebrafish project involving chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity associated with Doxorubicin (Dox). Anthracyclines, such as Dox, are effective chemotherapy drugs widely used to treat various cancers but induce dose-dependent cardiotoxicity, leading to reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and heart failure. The project serves to study the mechano-sensitive pathways involved with anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity (AIC) to optimize chemotherapy medication usage by introducing a co-treatment with spironolactone (SP). To visualize the induced cardiotoxicity, light-sheet fluorescence microscopy was used to obtain 3D+ time images of the hearts in DMSO control, Dox-treated, SP-treated, and Dox-SP-co-treated embryos. Currently, we continue to analyze bulk-RNA sequencing data to explore underlying genes involved with Dox-induced cardiac dysfunction and SP-reduced cardiac mechanisms. Helen would like to express her immense gratitude for the mentorship and continued support provided by Dr. Hsiai and the rest of the Hsiai lab members. She is sincerely appreciative of the research and career guidance she has received from the Hsiai Lab. She would like to thank the CARE Fellows Program for its generosity in encouraging her research endeavors.

Natalia is a second year Cognitive Science Major at UCLA. She works in the Rissman Memory Lab which takes a unique approach to dissecting human cognition, specifically on how humans recall and apply memory. Natalia contributes to the Rissman Memory Lab’s investigation of how goal-directed and exploratory attentional processes modulate memory formation, maintenance, and retrieval. In the CARE Program, Natalia will continue conducting research at the Rissman Memory Lab. The lab seeks to find which features of wakeful rest best facilitate associative inference, as these periods can encompass heterogeneous internally directed states. In this study, Natalia will use a behavioral representational similarity analysis approach to see if active or exploratory mind-wandering during awake rest improves our ability to connect related memories. This research will help develop model systems to understand which type of wakeful rest is most effective for enhancing these connections with less strain on the hippocampus, a critical brain area for memory. Natalia will explore the trends between active/exploratory mind-wandering and memory consolidation to link its connection to improved associative inference. Natalia would like to thank the entire Rissman Memory Lab, especially Dr. Jesse Rissman and Samantha Walters, for their continued guidance and mentorship. She would also like to thank the CARE Fellows Program at UCLA for this invaluable opportunity to grow as a scientist and student.

Annette Figueroa is a second-year undergraduate student studying Human Biology and Society. She is currently involved in research at Dr. Black’s Lab at UCLA, which focuses on developing a mechanistic understanding of the regulation of pre-mRNA splicing and applying it to human health. Her project specifically aims to identify the specific locations where U1 snRNP (small nuclear ribonucleoprotein), which is essential in demarcating the 5’ splice site, binds, and the active binding sites for splicing. This way, we will begin to understand how U1 function and splicing fails. Approximately 10-15% of pathogenic variants associated with human diseases are reported to occur at splice sites, therefore it is vital to establish comprehensive binding maps of U1 snRNP. Long-term, this project is expected to map 5’ splice site across the transcriptome, making it useful in medical genetics by designing drugs that alter splicing patterns in pathogenic variants. She would like to thank Dr. Black, her mentor, Daniel Arce, and the care fellows program for allowing me to engage in research and grow as a scientist.

Ella Cooper is a second-year Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology major at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently an undergraduate researcher for the Paul Lab which studies sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythms. Ella has been aiding in a project testing the role of the gene BMAL1 in recovery from sleep loss paired with muscle overexertion. The study examines the baseline and sleep deprivation EEG recordings of mice that overexpress BMAL1 and compares them to wild type mice. Ella has assisted by scoring the mice EEGs and setting up mice for the experiments. Ella would like to thank the Paul lab for their guidance and knowledge throughout her learning process. She has learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed her time in the lab.

Ziane Djenidi is a second-year neuroscience major at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate, Ziane conducts research in Dr. Greg Field’s Retinal Circuits lab. The Field lab is focused on understanding the neural circuitry of the retina and how these circuits process visual information. Ziane contributes to the cricket hunting project, which aims to create an assay of mice behavior to compare wild-type mice with those experiencing retinal degeneration. This project seeks to establish a comprehensive behavioral database that can be referenced in future experiments or when testing treatments for retinal degeneration in mice. In the Retinal Circuits lab, Ziane will continue to conduct research on the cricket hunting project. The lab’s goal is to gain insights into how retinal degeneration impacts behavior and to develop effective therapeutic strategies. This research involves observing and recording the hunting behaviors of mice, analyzing the data to identify significant differences between the two groups, and using these findings to inform further studies. Ziane would like to thank Dr. Greg Field and the entire Retinal Circuits team for their continued guidance and mentorship. He would also like to express his gratitude to CARE Fellows, PEERS, and Dr. Tama Hasson for this invaluable opportunity to grow as a scientist.

Ashley Ewalu is an MCDB major from Florida, aspiring to be a researcher in biochemistry and skincare. Since Fall 2023, she has been part of Paul Weiss’ lab, mentored by AJ Addae and Jason Williams. Their research focuses on the green synthesis of nanoparticles and nanocomposites for antimicrobial wound care and sunscreen applications. Driven by the growing need due to traumatic wounds, burns, and diabetes, the Weiss lab aim to enhance antimicrobial effects using plants like Eichhornia Crassipes. They optimize nanoparticle materials for antibacterial applications, address chronic skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, and improve sunscreen efficacy. Their study investigates silver-doped ZnO/AgO nanocomposites for better wound healing and UV protection. Additionally, the Weiss lab plan to develop a microbiome library to understand nanoparticle interactions with skin bacteria and create microbiome-friendly therapeutics and skincare products. Ashley would like to thank my mentors for believing in her and introducing her to a field she loves.

Alexa Garcia is a second year undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB). She is in Dr. Gerald Lipshutz’s Hepatic Regenerative Medicine Lab at UCLA. They primarily work with enzymatic deficiencies in the liver and brain, and subsequently develop gene therapies that are able to remedy these genetic diseases. Currently, she is working on an initial trial of Carbamoyl Phosphate Synthetase 1 (CPS1) deficiency. CPS1 deficiency is a rare genetic disorder that presents itself in humans through hyperammonemia, abnormal gait, vomiting and more. Previous research conducted on murine models of CPS1 deficiency is met with difficulty in expressing the large size of the CPS1 transgene compared to other hepatic enzymes. The Lipshutz Lab are utilizing a split adeno-associated virus gene therapy approach that can help mitigate the complications that arise from the large size of the CPS1 transgene. The initial trial has now reached a stage to expand to a larger, more permanent project that will allow us to observe the impact of the gene therapy on murine models with CPS1 deficiency. She would like to thank Dr. Lipshutz for the opportunity to grow and learn in research, as well as the rest of the Lipshutz Lab for all their guidance throughout this time. She would also like to thank the CARE Fellows program and Dr. Tama Hasson for providing me the opportunity to expand my skills in research.

Zaia is a second year Human Biology and Society major and African American studies minor at UCLA. She has been a research assistant in Dr. Terence Keel’s BioCritical Studies Lab in the Institute of Society and Genetics since the Winter of 2024. Within the lab, she works under the Coroner Reports Project: Death under the U.S. Medical Examiner/Coroner System. This project  studies interactions between the medical examiner/coroner system and law enforcement, how science and medicine are at play during instances of death in custody and how this in turn reduces accountability for law enforcement. Zaia contributes through data entry, as she reads autopsy reports of individuals who have died in custody of law enforcement and answers survey questions that are coded to a National Protocol. Zaia would like to thank Dr. Keel and Grace Sosa for providing her the opportunity to conduct such important research and work with such an amazing team. She is so grateful to have had their mentorship and this experience this school year. She is looking forward to continuing working with the lab in the future quarters. Lastly, she would like to thank the PEERS and CARE Fellows programs for inspiring her journey in research.

Elizabeth Hernandez is a second year Biology student at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate student at UCLA, she is currently conducting research in the Sears Lab. The research the Sears Lab aims to understand is how bats live longer than humans but remain healthy and barely show any signs of aging for most of their life. She is currently assisting her mentor Kobie, in their project that investigates the connection between viral load, immunity, and reproduction in bats. In the lab they are focusing on how the bats evolutionary diversification and robust immune systems may be linked to their metabolic requirements, as their metabolic needs during flight, may be linked to their high levels of immunity. The method used here will be Phage ImmunoPrecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq) which allows analysis of multiple antibodies simultaneously. They will keep observing blood samples to compare pathogens in captive versus wild bats to see how this in turn affects their aging and reproduction. Elizabeth would like to thank Dr.Sears and Kobie Boslough for their mentorship and support in her research experience.

Kimberly Jorge is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of California – Los Angeles studying Human Biology and Society. At UCLA, Kimberly conducts research in the Dr. Hayes Lab. The Hayes Lab is interested in lung cancer to see how unknown variants make cells oncogenic and how different targets affect sensitivity and resistance to current treatments. Dr. Hayes’ lab is fairly new and this year was primarily focused on acquiring background information on cancer and organizing/getting the lab space together. Kimberly is continuing in the summer with the Hayes lab and will be starting a project testing these unknown variants. She will identify observed variants from preliminary cancer genomics databases. Using the EGFR variants found, she will clone them in validation plasmids and then over-express them in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. These cell lines will then be tested in growth assays to determine their sensitivity to targeted therapies. Lastly, she would like to thank the CARE Fellows program for the opportunity to gain support in her research experience. Also a grand thank you to Dr. Hayes for allowing her the opportunity to become part of her lab as well as being a great model and mentor.

Lindsay Land is a second-year undergraduate student studying Computational & Systems Biology at UCLA. She is currently part of the Forest Ecosystems and Global Change lab led by Dr. Elsa Ordway of UCLA’s Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department. While the lab supports various projects, the common thread of research is the use of remote-sensing data, field observations, and models to explain changes in forest ecosystems due to climate change to better inform sustainable land-use policies worldwide. Specifically, Lindsay works on the NASA-funded Land-Cover and Land-Use Change project (LCLUC) with her mentor, PhD student Hannah Stouter, to study forest gain patterns in the Congo Basin, in tandem with qualitative information about the livelihoods of people in the region. She uses airborne and spaceborne remote sensing data to analyse forest gain, and regional surveys with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), village chiefs, and village inhabitants to identify the socioeconomic drivers of forest gain patterns. Currently, she is conducting an accuracy assessment of the datasets used by validating points labelled as gain using Google Earth Pro. In the future, she hopes to create a random forest model in R that will predict future forest change over the entire region of interest. Lindsay would like to thank Dr. Ordway and Hannah for their continual guidance and support of her individual interests, and for making her feel completely included in the project. She would also like to thank the CARE Fellows Programme for supporting her in her first research experience. She is incredibly grateful to have joined a lab so well aligned with her research interests and personal beliefs.

Rochelle is a second year undergraduate majoring in neuroscience at UCLA. She is heavily interested in how the environment influences neuron degeneration. At UCLA, Rochelle conducts research in Dr. William Zeiger’s lab. She had been a member of the Zeiger lab since January 2023. Researchers at the Zeiger lab aim to understand how dysfunction of brain circuits in neurological diseases leads to specific symptoms and disability. Through using a combination of in vivo imaging techniques, circuit tracing, novel behavioral assays, and circuit manipulations to study circuit dysfunction in mouse models of diseases such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The ultimate goal of the Zeiger lab is to define new therapeutic avenues to alleviate symptoms and modify the course of neurological disease for patients. Rochelle’s research project in the Zeiger lab focuses on the pathological spread of Alpha Synuclein protein that forms aggregates known as Lewy bodies in affected Parkinson’s patients. By injecting the Alpha Synuclein protein directly onto the primary visual cortex (V1), she was able to quantify the protein aggregates using computational methods in the V1 and adjacent areas affected by the pathological spread. Her project is a part of a larger project in the Zeiger lab to test if the presence of the aggregated Alpha Synuclein in the V1 correlates to cognitive symptoms such as visuospatial and visuoperceptual deficits that are commonly seen in Parkinson’s patients. Overall, the goal is to characterize a novel model of PD Dementia/Dementia with Lewy Bodies and increase our understanding of the mechanisms of cognitive impairment in patients with PD. She would like to thank Dr. William Zeiger, the entire Zeiger lab, and the CARE Fellows Program for so kindly supporting her and her undergraduate research experience.

Nada Osman is a second year Human Biology and Society major at UCLA. She has been conducting research with Dr. Knowlton’s lab under mentorship from Dr. Barbara Knowlton and Sonya Ashikyan. Their work has focused on the brain’s ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). How we selectively remember certain things better than others is determined by the mechanisms of the VLPFC. In this study the Knowlton Lab is trying to see if stimulating the left region of the VLFPC, using transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), increases the firing of neural signals and thus our ability to remember. Their findings will also help us better understand whether this region increases our memory of more significant things, overall memory, or increases our memory of just significant things at the expense of the other memories. This work is important, as it can lead to a greater understanding of the role VLPFC plays in memory, and could result in a breakthrough memory-improving mechanism, using the non-invasive tdcs stimulation. Nada would like to give a big thank you to the CARE fellows program and her amazing mentors Dr. Barbara Knowlton and Sonya Ashikyan for their overwhelming support and guidance on the start of her research journey.

Maya Rhee-Pizano is an undergraduate sophomore at UCLA studying Physiological Sciences and minoring in Global Health. Maya is currently on the pre-medicine path and is interested in regenerative medicine and stem cells. She currently works in Dr. Coller’s lab at UCLA which focuses on understanding the molecular basis of quiescence and its role in the cell cycle and cancer. The current project Maya is working on examines the role of dysregulated autophagy in chronic wounds and chronic wound healing. Chronic wounds pose a formidable challenge in public health specifically among diabetic patients whose impaired wound healing constitutes substantial morbidity and mortality risks. In diabetic patients with chronic wounds, the sequential wound repair process is disrupted and characterized by a heightened inflammatory stage marked by an abundance of M1 macrophages, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and reduced M2 macrophages. Maya investigates the immune cell profile of various tissues important to the wound healing process using flow cytometry. She examines the difference in the number of macrophages, their activation status, and differences in the immune cell reactions of chronic wounds. The Coller lab hopes that understanding the molecular intricacies of impaired autophagy in chronic wounds will offer promising avenues for therapeutic interventions aimed at ameliorating wound healing outcomes in diabetic patients. Maya would like to thank the entire Coller Lab, especially Dr. Coller, Dr. Jelinek, and Dr. Ambrus for their continued guidance, mentorship, and support. She would also like to thank the CARE Fellows Program at UCLA for this invaluable opportunity and guidance.

Isabel Rosales is a sophomore majoring in Biochemistry and minoring in Chicana/o and Central American Studies. In the fall of 2023, she joined Dr. Paula Diaconescu’s Laboratory. The research centers on the investigation of redox-switchable catalysis to form polymers. Her project specifically investigates the use of a ferrocene-based aluminum metal catalyst to polymerize monomers such as epoxides into useful multi-block polymers. Redox-switchable catalysis is a reaction method that employs metal-centered catalysts that can switch between oxidized and reduced states to form multi-block polymers that exhibit orthogonal reactivity. This method improves the efficiency of the polymer formation process as it allows for one-pot synthesis and creates polymers with a high degree of control. By switching between the states of the metal catalyst with chemical triggers, redox-switchable catalysis can synthesize useful polymers from very different monomers. The resulting polymers then have the desirable qualities of all the monomers used. With the use of redox-switchable catalysis, a number of new materials can be made. Isabel would like to thank the Diaconescu Laboratory for their mentorship and support, especially her mentor Dr. Paula Diaconescu, and her graduate-student mentor Shiyun Lin. Also, she would like to thank the CARE Fellows Program for their support.

Amadu Tadesse is a 2nd year Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Major. He is currently working in the Jonas Lab which focuses on development and application of new nanotechnologies and methods to support the childhood cancer and regenerative medicine research communities in accelerating the discovery and implementation of innovative gene therapy approaches and diagnostic strategies. His current projects focus on the development of nanotechnology and cancer therapeutics to treat prostate cancer, as well as the development of a gene therapy treatment for Cystic Fibrosis. These projects both involve the use of lipid nanoparticles to deliver this therapeutic cargo to specific regions of the body. He would like to thank Dr. Steven Jonas and the Jonas lab as a whole for the continued support through his journey in research.

Diana Vaca is a second year MIMG student. She conducts research in Dr. Lily Wu’s lab which is centered around anticancer treatments for aggressive forms of cancer. Primarily, her lab is focused on exploring the anticancer effects of widely used cholesterol drugs, statins, on aggressive metastatic cancers. The ultimate goal being drug refinement/development, with the help of other departments for the creation of the most effective drug conformations. Currently the main focus of the lab is to gain understanding on the pathway of inhibition that the cholesterol drugs take while also exploring the pathway to metastasis for each cancer type that they work with. Diana’s individual project is centered around determining the efficiency/potency
of each drug derivative on highly aggressive triple negative breast cancer cells through a series of multiple half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) tests. In addition to actually running these tests, analysis of each test is possible due to high throughput confocal imaging done with the molecular screening shared resource (MSSR) at UCLA. In addition, images are then analyzed using AI networks and the results are then used for determination of the most effective statin derivative. Diana would very much like to thank her lab mates, mentors, and her PI, Dr Lily Wu for the opportunity to conduct research on her team.