Amgen Scholars

Millie is a Neuroscience and Psychology double major at Wellesley College where she worked under Dr. Courtney Marshall studying the underlying pathological mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on hyperphosphorylated tau.
As an Amgen Scholar, Millie is researching depressive-like states with Dr. Austin Coley. The project Millie is working on uses mice with induced learned helplessness to model depression. Generally about fifty percent of mice are susceptible to become helpless following the stress protocol, the other fifty are deemed resilient. Millie runs behavioral assays including novel object recognition, T-mazes measuring working memory and reward-motivation, and head-fixed pavlovian discrimination which measures learning. Millie uses deep learning animal tracking software SLEAP to establish facial expression analysis as a valid, quantifiable readout for behavioral and emotional states in mice.
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has previously been linked with various depressive phenotypes and is a particular region of interest in the Coley Lab. Once behavioral data is collected, the lab will use in vivo 2-photon calcium imaging in the mPFC to study neural substrates and neural population activity differences associated with learned helplessness. Increasing granular understanding of depressive-like states by comparing neural and behavioral activity of stressed-susceptible, stressed-resilient, and control mice, will allow development of more effective treatments for depressive disorders.
Millie would like to thank Dr. Coley, Project Scientist Dr. Safaryan, and the rest of the Coley Lab for their mentorship and unwavering support of her curiosity. She also thanks the Amgen Foundation and UCLA program for providing her this opportunity.

Xagros is a rising senior studying Biology through the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. At UCSB, he conducts research in the Sepunaru Electrocatalysis Group, where he uses biophysical methods to study single-cell and single-molecule interactions. His research aims to elucidate the molecular interactions that drive intracellular states implicated in neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases from a physical chemistry perspective.  As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, he is currently working in the Di Carlo Biomicrofluidics Group, developing nanovial-based platforms for single-cell antibody delivery. Nanovials are hydrogel microparticles capable of capturing single cells, enabling multiomic approaches that link transcriptional activity to secreted proteins—tools with powerful applications in immunotherapy and mapping cell–cell interaction networks. Xagros’s project focuses on engineering antibody-secreting cells inside capped nanovials to develop scalable, cell-based alternatives to gene therapy. He would like to thank Dr. Dino Di Carlo for the opportunity to pursue this work, as well as Dr. Yuta Nakagawa and PhD candidate Alyssa Arnheim for their unwavering support and mentorship. He is also deeply grateful to the Amgen Foundation for enabling this transformative experience, which has sharpened his passion for microfluidics and cell therapy and shaped his future path as an interdisciplinary researcher.

Shivani is a rising senior at the University of Washington Seattle, majoring in Bioengineering with a minor in Music. At UW, Shivani works in the DeForest Lab, where she develops novel protein-based hydrogels for targeted drug delivery.
As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Shivani is working in Dr. Nasim Annabi’s lab which researches advanced biomaterials and systems for therapeutic delivery and disease detection. Her project focuses on developing a new mucoadhesive hydrogel that can be used for ocular delivery of extracellular vesicles (EVs). Current ocular delivery methods, such as eye drops or ointments, suffer from poor bioavailability due to the corneal epithelium barrier and fast clearance from blinking. Existing hydrogel and nanoparticle ocular delivery systems struggle with adhesion and control over release kinetics. Shivani’s work aims to develop a new hydrogel that will have improved mucoadhesion to allow for sustained release of EVs on the ocular surface. She will be testing the hydrogel’s mucoadhesion through in vitro wound closure and burst pressure tests. She will also be testing the therapeutic release profile from the hydrogel with different crosslinking densities to determine how EV release varies with material properties.
Shivani would like to thank her graduate student mentor, Jim Liu, and her PI, Dr. Annabi, for their mentorship and guidance, as well as the Amgen Foundation for this incredible opportunity.

Gordon Lao is a rising senior at UC Davis, majoring in Cell Biology. He aspires to obtain a Ph.D. and conduct his own research on cancer immunotherapy treatments. Gordon, formerly a MARC scholar, is an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Su-Ju Lin’s lab, which studies NAD + metabolism and regulation in budding yeast. As an Amgen scholar at UCLA, Gordon is conducting research in Dr. Timothy O’ Sullivan’s lab which studies the innate immune system in the context of various diseases. NK cells are cytotoxic innate lymphoid cells that produce cytokines and chemokines that impact immune response. Their ability to recognize stressed cells and mediate the killing of cancer cells have led to an increased interest in utilizing NK cells for anti-cancer immunotherapy. However, exposure to tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) has been shown to impact NK cell phenotypes and impair their anti-cancer functions. Recent studies have shown ascorbic acid to be an emerging immunotherapeutic factor, as it has implications in immune cell functions like T cell maturation. Gordon aims to further elucidate the effects of ascorbic acid on NK cells and explore its potential to engineer a more effective NK cell treatment for cancer immunotherapy. Gordon would like to thank Katelynn Kazane, Dr. Timothy O’ Sullivan, and everybody else in the lab for their patience, mentorship, and for creating a welcoming environment. He would also like to give a special thanks to the Amgen program and the directors for giving him the opportunity to conduct extramural research.

At Cal Poly, Elizabeth Manis is a rising senior studying Microbiology and Bioinformatics. Over the past two and a half years at Cal Poly, she has been conducting research in both physical chemistry and immunology, studying the photochemistry of dithiocarboxylates under the guidance of Dr. David F. Zigler and investigating the antibacterial effects of small extracellular vesicles in the Greenlee-Wacker laboratory.
As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Elizabeth is working in Dr. Gal Bitan’s lab, developing methods for non-invasive isolation of neuronal extracellular vesicles from urine. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are carrier nanoparticles that can transport cell products such as nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins, and often function in intercellular communication. EVs released from central nervous system (CNS) cells can cross the blood-brain barrier, becoming detectable in peripheral fluids such as blood and urine. Within the context of neurodegenerative disease, these EVs can contain protein ‘biomarkers’: indicators of health. Her work aims to isolate CNS-originating EVs from urine for measurement of these neurodegenerative disease biomarkers. A urine-based diagnostic would eliminate patient barriers to disease identification due to its non-invasive modality, permitting the repeated collection of large volumes without the pain or materials required for blood sampling.
After completing her undergraduate degree, Elizabeth aims to pursue a PhD in Immunology/Molecular Biology, with a strong interest in the innate immune system. Elizabeth would like to thank Dr. Gal Bitan, Dr. Ibrar Siddique, all members of the Bitan lab, UCLA, and the Amgen Foundation for their support and guidance in her scientific endeavors.

Sofia is a rising senior at Fairfield University where she studies behavioral neuroscience. Using behavioral assays, she is investigating the intersection between stress and cocaine use disorder under Dr. Karl Schmidt.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Sofia is working under Dr. Carlos Portera-Cailliau (PI) and Dr. Anand Suresh (post-doc) on a project to identify novel treatments for Fragile X syndrome (FXS) – the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. There are no currently approved treatments for FXS that address its underlying biology. The Portera-Cailliau lab adopted a symptom-to-molecule approach, combining behavioral, circuit, and transcriptomic studies in a mouse model of FXS to uncover molecular signatures of circuit dysfunction that could be targeted for therapy. Their previous work has identified upregulation of EPAC2, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor which regulates synaptic turnover and stability, in Fmr1 knockout (KO) mice, the best studied animal model of FXS. Sofia’s project will evaluate whether systemic administration of an EPAC2 inhibitor, ESI-05, can ameliorate multiple behavioral deficits in Fmr1 KO. She will utilize machine learning approaches to evaluate animal behavior and evaluate the role of EPAC2 inhibition in FXS.

Sofia would like to thank Dr. Carlos Portera-Cailliau, Dr. Anand Suresh, the Portera-Cailliau Lab, and Dr. Karl Schmidt for their invaluable mentorship. She would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation and UCLA Amgen Scholars Program Staff for this opportunity to learn more within the vast field of neuroscience.

Alen is an incoming junior at the University of Washington in Seattle studying Biochemistry. At his home institution, Alen is an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Sean C. Murphy’s lab, where he studies malarial vaccine development and antigen discovery.

As a UCLA Amgen Scholar, Alen works in Dr. Lena Pernas’ lab studying host-pathogen and inter-pathogen interactions in dually infected cells. Coinfections are an understudied aspect of immunology but are clinically relevant on a global scale. By examining morphologies of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii and bacterium Chlamydia caviae in singly and dually infected mammalian cells, he hopes to shed light on the mechanisms behind these underlying interactions. The lab’s central aim is to understand the metabolism of infection, studying the relationship between pathogens and organelles by examining the interactions of Toxoplasma gondii and host mitochondria.

Alen would like to give thanks to the members of the Pernas lab for their flexibility and good nature throughout the program, especially to Dr. Lena Pernas for her invaluable guidance this summer as well as post-doctoral mentor Dr. Amy Prichard for her continued support and patience. He would also like to thank the members of the Murphy lab for their ongoing support of his research in addition to the Amgen Foundation and the UCLA administrative staff who make this program possible, especially Kimberly Mendez, Dr. Tama Hasson, and Dr. Beth Lazazzera.

Bridget is a rising senior at UCLA and is majoring in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She has conducted research in the lab of Dr. Caius Radu at UCLA since her sophomore year.
Bridget focuses on studying innate immune activation mechanisms in response to an immunotherapy platform consisting of RNA complexed in lipid nanoparticles (RNA-LNP). Immunotherapy utilizes the body’s own immune system to treat cancer and other immune system-related diseases. As a result, immunotherapy serves as a promising cancer treatment because it harnesses the host immune cells to recognize and target cancer cells. The Radu Lab has developed strategies for using RNA-LNP as a cancer vaccine strategy for targeting solid tumors that are often refractory to current standard-of-care treatments. Additionally, the Radu Lab also investigates the use of the RNA-LNP platform for combating the barrier of the hostile tumor microenvironment that suppresses innate immune activation in the setting of cancer.
Bridget contributes to the ongoing research direction by investigating pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) involved in sensing of the RNA-LNP platform. Her project is centered on measuring signals of RNA-LNP-induced immune activation in particular innate immune cell subsets to inform immunotherapy strategies in preclinical mouse models.
Bridget would like to thank the Radu Lab, especially Dr. Caius Radu, project scientist Dr. Khalid Rashid, and her graduate student mentor Hailey Lee, for their wonderful mentorship, patience, and constant support. She would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation for this unique opportunity to expand her skills in research and pursue her passion for research.

Rista White is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Cognitive Science and minoring in Biomedical Research. In the Bhaduri Lab within the Department of Biological Chemistry, Rista studies early brain development. More broadly, the Bhaduri Lab examines how neural stem cells both build the cerebral cortex during early development and drive the progression of fatal brain cancers later in life. In the lab, Rista primarily studies mechanisms of early brain development by growing stem cells into cortical organoids, 3D models of the embryonic brain.
As an Amgen Scholar, Rista is investigating the influence of thalamic neurons on cortical fate specification with graduate student mentor Claudia Nguyen. The cortex, the topmost layer of the brain, is divided into functional regions that enable high-level cognitive functions such as memory, logical reasoning, and language comprehension. How stem cells organize into these anatomical specializations is not well understood. The thalamus, a brain structure responsible for receiving sensory information from the peripheral nervous system, grows in parallel with the cortex. The Bhaduri lab is interested in how the thalamus influences the regional fate decisions of cortical progenitors. To explore this relationship, Rista is growing cortical and thalamic organoids for fusion experiments. Through immunostaining, confocal imaging, and analysis of single-cell data, Rista is hoping to better characterize how thalamocortical connectivity drives healthy neurogenesis and may serve as a mechanism for neurodevelopmental disorders when awry.
Rista would like to thank Dr. Bhaduri, Claudia Nguyen, the Bhaduri lab, and the Amgen Foundation for their generous support and amazing science mentorship.

Cindy Avila is an incoming senior at Albion College studying Biochemistry. This summer
She is conducting research at Dr. Jose Rodriguez’s lab where she will be
comparing the functionality of PCMTD1 and PCMTD2 enhancing our
understanding of their roles in protein maintenance and ubiquitylation.

Her research focuses on characterizing PCMTD2, a homolog of the well-studied
enzyme PCMTD1, to determine its role in repairing isoaspartyl damaged
proteins as well as its possible role as an E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. she is
looking forward to expanding her laboratory skillset as a student and a
professional, aiming for a career as an MD/PhD.

Caroline Ceravolo is in her senior year at Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham, Washington. At WWU, she researches SH3 and PDZ protein domains and their binding interactions in Dr. Jeanine Amacher’s research lab.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Caroline is working in Dr. Ajit Divakaruni’s lab in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. For the summer she is researching the metabolism of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The RPE is a monolayer of pigmented cells located between the retina and the choroid. It plays many critical roles in eye health, including phagocytosis of photoreceptor outer segments (POSs). POSs are located within photoreceptor cells, found in the outermost layer of the retina. To maintain the health and functionality of the photoreceptor cells, these segments undergo a constant renewal, with discs grown near to the base while distal POSs are phagocytosed by adjacent RPE cells in a process called outer segment phagocytosis (OSP). The RPE utilizes alternative substrates for its own metabolism, sparing glucose for the metabolism needs of photoreceptor cells. One of the hypothesized forms of alternative substrates are the POSs themselves. To determine if metabolites in the POSs are being used by the RPE, Caroline is using carbon tracing experiments.

Caroline would like to thank Dr. Jeanine Amacher for her encouragement to go for this opportunity, Dr. Ajit Divakaruni and the entire Divakaruni Lab for their incredible mentorship and support, and the Amgen Foundation for giving her the opportunity to continue to grow as a scientist.

Camryn is a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. At UMass, Camryn is an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Jennifer Rauch’s lab, which studies the molecular mechanisms that regulate the spread and aggregation of the protein tau and its association with neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Camryn works in Dr. David Nathanson’s lab to investigate the molecular biology of malignant brain tumors, specifically glioblastoma, the most lethal type of glioma. Understanding the functional biology and the altered cellular functional processes of glioma cells is essential in discovering therapeutics for this disease. Camryn’s project focuses on two novel drugs and how they modulate lipid-mediated cell death of gliomaspheres. She is investigating different neuronally derived glioma cell lines and culturing them in serum and serum-free conditions to explore how differentiation of stem-like glioma cells and their microenvironment affects their sensitivity to these two drugs. This includes monitoring the status of stem-like and differential gene markers in these two cell lines over the course of their differentiation, and quantifying cell sensitivity to the drugs through cell death assays.

Camryn would like to thank Dr. Nathanson, Jenny Salinas, the Nathanson lab, and the Amgen Foundation for their support during this incredible opportunity to further foster a love and a passion for science.

Emily is a rising senior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland majoring in biology and biochemistry. At St. Mary’s she works in the Emerson lab, where she uses computational methods to research how the environment influences developmental and physiological processes of the genome.

As a UCLA Amgen Scholar, Emily is conducting research in the Luis de la Torre-Ubieta (LTU) lab in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. The LTU lab uses single-cell multiomics to study the genetic processes of the developing human neocortex. Down Syndrome (DS) presents with cognitive deficits, reduced brain weight, and neural hypocellularity. It is hypothesized that this pathology is conferred by the increased dosage of gene regulators encoded on chromosome 21, causing global gene dysregulation. For her project, Emily will be analyzing single-cell gene expression and chromatin accessibility of DS-derived neural progenitor cells (phNPCs) to identify the effects of T21 on cell type-specific gene expression and regulation in phNPCs. This in vitro single-cell resolution map will provide insight to be used in the development of therapeutics for DS.

Emily would like to thank the Amgen Foundation, Dr. Luis de la Torre-Ubieta, Alexis Weber, and the entire LTU Lab for their support and guidance in her scientific endeavors.

Emily is a rising senior at Western Washington University majoring in Biology. At WWU, Emily works in the lab of Dr. Nick Galati studying cell signaling mechanisms of mammalian primary cilia. She utilizes immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy to capture fluorescent images of human and mouse cells to develop an understanding of cell signaling relative to cellular geometry.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Emily is investigating human embryonic stem cell development in the lab of Dr. Hanna Mikkola. The goals of the Mikkola lab include illuminating the fetal microenvironments where progenitor stem cells differentiate into mature blood cells essential for cardiovascular homeostasis. By studying the niches where hematopoietic stem cells proliferate and differentiate, we are able to understand more about the conditions which give rise to blood system pathologies such as leukemias, and use this to develop better therapeutics for treatment of these disorders. Emily’s work this summer includes describing the physiological differences which give rise to hematopoietic stem cell development in addition to identifying cell subtypes and signaling pathways which are important for hematopoiesis.

Emily would like to thank Dr. Hanna Mikkola and Dr. Yue Wang for their mentorship, and the entire Mikkola Lab for being so supportive, kind, and helpful. She also would like to say thank you to her family for always encouraging her to pursue her dreams. Lastly, Emily would like to thank UCLA and the Amgen Foundation for giving her this opportunity to explore and grow as a scientist and have an unforgettable summer.

Gabe is a rising senior at Haverford College majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Physics. He aspires to create breakthrough tools for organic synthesis, increasing the accessibility of bioactive molecules relevant to developing new drugs, agrochemicals, and materials. At Haverford, he works in the Malachowski lab at near-by Bryn Mawr College, where his research is focused on the development of novel enantioselective cyclizations for the synthesis of interesting heterocycles with quaternary centers.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Gabe is researching metallaphotoredox catalysis in the Doyle lab. The Doyle lab seeks to advance chemical synthesis and catalysis by drawing upon photocatalysis, Nickel chemistry, and machine learning and data science. As he looks towards graduate school, Gabe is highly interested in the development of synthesis methods that leverage photochemical and electrochemical redox reactions, and to achieve such transformations enantioselectively, often through pairing with organocatalysis or transition metal catalysis. As a result, he is thrilled to be in the Doyle lab for the summer.
Gabe would like to thank his postdoc mentor in the Doyle lab, Dr. Rajat Maji, all members of the Doyle lab, and the Amgen Foundation for funding this incredible opportunity

Angela is a rising senior majoring in Physiological Science at UCLA. She has conducted
research at the Hsiao Lab at UCLA since her sophomore year. At the Hsiao Lab, Angela studies the effects of the ketogenic diet on Autism Spectrum Disorder using mouse models.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an idiopathic neurodevelopmental disorder largely
characterized by behavioral symptoms, including deficits in social communication and
interaction and the presence of repetitive behaviors. While there is currently no curative
treatment for ASD, recent studies have shown that the ketogenic diet (KD) is promising in
alleviating the behavioral symptoms of ASD. However, the exact mechanisms are not well
characterized. Working with her postdoctoral mentor Dr. Gulistan Agirman, Angela aims to
uncover the mechanisms underlying KD improvement of ASD core behavioral symptoms.
Angela’s project with the UCLA Amgen Scholars Program seeks to better characterize the
effects of KD on different mouse models of ASD and to better understand the specific cell types that could potentially be involved in the mechanism by which KD improves ASD behavioral symptoms.

Angela would like to thank Dr. Gulistan Agirman, Michael Quicho, and Dr. Elaine Hsiao for
their exceptional mentorship, guidance, and encouragement. She would also like to thank the members of the Hsiao Lab for their support. Last but not least, she would like to thank the Amgen Foundation for this wonderful opportunity and Dr. Tama Hasson, Dr. Beth Lazazzera, and Kimberly Mendez for their guidance this summer.

Neha is a rising senior at UC Davis majoring in Cell Biology. There she conducts research in Dr. Changil Hwang’s lab in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, studying the epigenetic regulation of pancreatic cancer metastasis. As part of the Amgen Scholars Program at UCLA, Neha works in Dr. Timothy O’Sullivan’s lab, which studies the innate immune system in the context of various diseases. Neha’s project is focused on natural killer (NK cells) and their role in tumor cell killing. NK cells are cytotoxic innate lymphocytes that play an important role in defense against viral infections and tumor
metastasis. Tumor cells have developed a number of evasive mechanisms to avoid immune cell killing, and one example of this is overexpression of HLA class I molecule (HLA-E), which binds to the NKG2A receptor on NK cells to inhibit NK cell proliferation. However, during human cytomegalovirus infection there is an expansion of NK cells expressing the activating NKG2C receptor complex, which also binds to HLA-E. Neha aims to study how overexpression of this activating receptor complex could provide a method of enhancing tumor cell killing by NK cells and ultimately provide insight into how NK cells can be more effectively utilized in cancer therapeutics. Neha would like to thank the O’Sullivan Lab, especially Dr. Timothy O’Sullivan and her graduate student mentor Joey Li, for their mentorship and support throughout the summer, as well as the Amgen Foundation for providing her with this opportunity to further her skills as a researcher.

Ashlyn Sloane is a rising senior at UCLA majoring in Neuroscience. She joined the Wells Lab in the summer of 2023, where she studies mTOR signaling defects and the potential rescue of cellular phenotypes by rapamycin of Jordan’s syndrome patient cell lines.

Jordan’s syndrome (JS) is caused by a mutation in the gene PPP2R5D, which potentially causes an upregulation of the mTOR pathway that is responsible for cell proliferation and growth. JS is characterized by Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), macrocephaly, and hypotonia. Rapamycin is an antibiotic that is a known modulator of the mTOR pathway. During the school year, Ashlyn studied the gene expression changes with rapamycin treatment in control neural progenitor cells (NPCs). As an Amgen Scholar, Ashlyn will continue her work to identify a dose-dependent effect on the protein expression and phosphorylation of rapamycin on two proteins downstream of the mTOR Complex. Her goal is to determine the ideal duration and concentration of rapamycin treatment for future use in JS NPCs. She will then identify any quantifiable differences between control and JS NPC cell lines in baseline protein expression and phosphorylation of her two proteins of interest. Through this summer research, Ashlyn will apply rapamycin to JS NPCs in the fall to potentially rescue the cellular phenotypes of JS patient lines.

Ashlyn would like to thank her graduate student mentor, Laila Sathe, and her PI, Dr. Michael Wells, for their invaluable mentorship, kindness, and support, as well as the Amgen Foundation for this incredible opportunity!

At Northwestern, Cooper is a rising junior majoring in Biological Sciences, with a concentration in Cell and Developmental Biology. Since the summer of 2023, he has been studying the epigenetic regulation of progenitor skin cell differentiation in Professor Xiaomin Bao’s lab. He has worked on projects relating to the cell-state specific interactions of chromatin remodeling complexes, and the roles of ligand-activated transcription factors in xenobiotic metabolism and differentiation. 

At UCLA, Cooper is working in the Goldstein lab, which investigates stem cells, metabolism, and cancer initiation in the prostate. This summer, he is studying how germline variations of the HOXB13 gene reprogram lipid metabolism in prostate cancer. Some ancestry-specific variants of certain genes, like the transcription factor HOXB13, have been linked to an increased risk of earlier and more aggressive prostate cancer. Using techniques like western blots, drug treatments, and metabolite tracing, Cooper seeks to uncover how these variant cancer cells build or utilize lipids differently than their wildtype counterparts. He hopes this project will help reveal how more aggressive cancer phenotypes reprogram cells’ metabolism, and inform more targeted, ancestry-specific therapeutic options for advanced prostate cancer in the future

Cooper would like to thank Shirley Zhang, Dr. Andrew Goldstein, and the whole Goldstein lab for their kindness, patience, and support. He’d also like to thank the Amgen Foundation for this opportunity to learn new skills and refine his interests as a scientist.

Justin is a rising senior at UCLA majoring in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. Justin started in the Spencer Lab in the summer of 2022. There, Justin studies the influence of macrophage-specific Spp1 on the dystrophic phenotype and cell-cell interactions in the dystrophic muscle niche. This is all with the aim of better understanding Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and the mechanisms that increase its severity.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an inherited degenerative muscular disorder caused by mutations in the DMD gene. Mutations in the DMD gene cause a loss of function of dystrophin, a protein essential for muscle cell membrane integrity via the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC). As a result, muscle cells are prone to chronic injury, dysregulated inflammation, and fibrosis. As an Amgen scholar, Justin will study DMD using muscular dystrophy X-linked mice (mdx mice), which are mice with a dystrophic background because of a point mutation in the DMD gene that causes them to express non-function dystrophin. This model will be used alongside the macrophage conditional knockout mouse line (MϕcKO) created by the Spencer Lab. The ablation of macrophage osteopontin has led to the disappearance of two stromal cell subclusters. The two subclusters were transcriptionally characterized and found to be novel stromal cell populations, which the Spencer lab refers to as ApoD(+) and Cxcl13(+) stromal cells. Using immunofluorescence techniques, Justin will find out if macrophage osteopontin is responsible for the viability of these cells and through which mechanism this happens. Justin will also characterize the phenotypic effects of missing ApoD(+) and Cxcl13(+) stromal cells on the mdx mice muscles. The preliminary characterization will involve using intracellular fat staining to uncover any difference in the amount of intracellular fat in MϕcKO compared to the control mice.

Justin is exceptionally grateful to everyone at the Spencer Lab for their kindness, patience, and helpfulness. This is especially so for Justin’s graduate student mentor, Raquel Aragón, and his PI, Dr. Melissa Spencer. Justin would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation for this opportunity and their support in his journey to become a physician-scientist.

Zachary Caterer, an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC), is focused on the development and integration of novel imaging techniques, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to enhance diagnostic accuracy and improve point-of-care practices. At UWEC, he contributed to a project in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Department of Computer Science, where he assisted in developing deep learning algorithms for automated and precise detection and classification of laser-based spectroscopic images. This advancement has the potential to revolutionize diagnostic processes, aiming to enhance patient treatment and outcomes.

As an Amgen Scholar, Zachary is currently working on integrating machine learning and fluorescence microscopy techniques to create an automated system for the accurate detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in patient smears. By utilizing environment-sensitive probes and the low-cost fluorescence microscope Octopi, his objective is to streamline the diagnostic process and improve the efficiency and reliability of TB detection. The project involves investigating optimal parameters for probe detection, distinguishing between live and dead cells, assessing drug resistance, and detecting Mtb cells in human samples. Through this research, Zachary aims to contribute to global efforts in combating tuberculosis and ultimately enhance patient care.

Zachary extends his sincere gratitude to the Amgen Foundation and The Kamariza Lab for the invaluable opportunity to develop and execute his project, further refining his skills as a researcher.

Arden is a rising senior chemistry major at Carleton College. He greatly values the time he spends with his peers exploring scientific understanding, and is particularly interested in physical and analytical chemistry and biochemistry and their applications in advancing society.

As part of the Amgen Scholars Program at UCLA, Arden is conducting research in the lab of Dr. José Rodríguez in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The Rodríguez lab studies structural biology with computational, biochemical, and biophysical approaches using imaging methods such as electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and electron diffraction. Arden is using these diffraction methods to explore structural aspects of binding in enzyme inhibition. Papain is a cysteine protease used as a model system for numerous analogous enzymes including the particularly relevant PLpro domain of Nsp3 from SARS-CoV-2, which is vital for viral replication. Inhibition of papain is possible with small molecules such as E64 that irreversibly bind the thiol group at the active site characteristic of these enzymes. Examining binding of E64 derivatives is of interest for selective inhibition of cysteine proteases, which has potential as a therapeutic tool in targeting viral and neurodegenerative disease pathways.

Arden would like to thank his mentors Professor Rodríguez and Niko Vlahakis for their invaluable guidance, as well as UCLA and the Amgen Scholars Program for providing him with this opportunity to grow as a scientist.

Christina is a rising senior at UCLA majoring in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. She has worked in Dr. Crosbie’s lab since December 2021, where she studies how the mechanotransduction protein YAP can alter inflammatory macrophage behavior in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), enhancing overall disease pathology.

DMD is a rare, X-linked disorder that currently has no cure and is ultimately fatal. Patients experience progressive muscle weakness and muscle degeneration, as well as chronic inflammation and muscle fibrosis due to elevated macrophage activity. Muscle fibrosis results in elevated extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness, activating mechanosensing proteins such as YAP, which normally regulates cell proliferation, but also has a potential role in polarizing macrophages towards an inflammatory phenotype in stiffer environments. Christina’s project with the UCLA Amgen Scholars Program seeks to better understand how macrophage cytotoxic behavior is altered when YAP is activated in macrophages by the stiffer, fibrotic environment of DMD muscle. Using cytotoxicity assays and immunofluorescence techniques, Christina hopes to better understand mechanisms of immunomodulation and macrophage behavior in DMD.

Christina would like to thank her graduate student mentors, Pranav Kannan and Daniel Helzer, and Dr. Rachelle Crosbie for their incredible mentorship and support, as well as the Amgen Foundation for this amazing opportunity to continue her growth as a scientist.

Charlotte is a rising senior at Wesleyan University double majoring in Molecular Biology and
Biochemistry, and Neuroscience and Behavior. At Wesleyan, she works in Dr. MacQueen’s lab, using
budding yeast as a model organism for studying the dynamics of meiotic proteins involved in the structure
and function of the synaptonemal complex.
As a UCLA Amgen Scholar, Charlotte works in Dr. Askary’s lab in the Molecular, Cell and
Developmental Biology Department, and this lab focuses on creating and utilizing new or modified
molecular tools to understand embryonic development of the mammalian retina with the goal of using this
understanding to develop better therapeutic strategies and molecular diagnostics for neurodegenerative
disorders of the eye. Charlotte is using a modified single molecule fluorescent in situ hybridization
(smFISH) procedure developed by a member of the Askary Lab to visualize the presence and localization
of the expression of 33 different genes of RPCs in embryonic mouse tissue with the hopes to use this
combined spatial and transcriptional information to characterize subtypes of RPCs that could inform on
what biases an RPC to assume a certain cell fate. This would provide further insight into the development
of the retina, as well as a means of generating a reliable source of different retinal cell types to use for
studying treatment of retinal damage.
Charlotte would like to thank Dr. Askary, her mentor Pratiti Dasgupta, lab manager Yuka McGrath, and
the other members of the Askary Lab for their guidance, support, and encouragement, as well as the
Amgen Foundation for this amazing opportunity!

Miriam Lepiz is a rising senior at UC Irvine conducting research in the Rodriguez Verdugo lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her project is focused on increasing the realism and diversity of a three-strain synthetic microbial community representative of the Loma Ridge site in Irvine Ca.

As a UCLA Amgen scholar, Miriam is conducting research in Dr. Hong Zhou’s lab in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and the Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines. The Zhou lab focuses on 3D structural studies of biological complexes using Cryo-EM and Cryo-ET.

For the summer, she has focused on constructing an atomic model of the Mammalian Reovirus (MRV) using a cryo-em map. MRV is a segmented dsRNA virus with two capsid layers, belonging to the Reovirdae family. It is known to be a gastrointestinal virus capable of infecting all mammals but has low pathogenicity towards humans. This virus is studied due to its oncolytic function and to be used as a model for more pathogenic viruses that belong to the Reovirdae family. An atomic model of MRV will provide a high enough resolution to study the interactions within the intermediate particles of the virus during viral replication and assembly.

Miriam would like to thank Dr. Hong Zhou and Dr. Xiaoyu Liu for their incredible mentorship and extensive support. She would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation for providing her with the opportunity to grow as a researcher.

Marcos Moliné is a rising third-year neurobiology student at UCSD, working in the Molina Lab at UCSD Health, where they study mitochondrial dysfunction and its relation to healthy aging.

As part of the UCLA Amgen Scholars program, Marcos is working in Dr. Richard Staba’s Lab. His project focuses on analyzing the effects of the potential drug treatments, deferiprone and levetiracetam, in preventing epileptogenesis after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Because the onset of epilepsy can take months to years to occur in humans after TBI, Marcos’ project uses rats as an animal model. TBI is induced, and high frequency oscillations, interictal spikes, and seizures are monitored as biomarkers during the acute period (14 days) following TBI.  Currently, anti-seizure medications such as levetiracetam are prescribed to epileptic patients to treat their seizures. However, this drug only prevents symptoms. Therefore, there is a need for a treatment to prevent epileptogenesis after TBI, especially considering that 15-50% of patients who experience TBI develop epilepsy. Deferiprone has been identified as a possible anti-epileptogenic treatment because it is an iron chelator and will metabolize potentially harmful iron released in the brain due to bleeding. The lab hypothesizes that a combination of deferiprone and levetiracetam will reduce the observed biomarkers, indicating increased potential as an anti-epileptogenic treatment, which can be further studied in clinical trials.

Marcos is very grateful to Dr. Richard Staba and Dr. Cesar Santana-Gomez for their mentorship this summer, as well as to the Amgen Foundation and UCLA for giving him this opportunity.

Truman is a rising senior at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) who studies Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental (MCD) Biology. Since June 2022, he has been conducting undergraduate research in the Chamorro-Garcia lab of the Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology at UCSC, where he has been studying the obesogenic effects that microfiber microplastics have on mesenchymal stem cells as they differentiate into adipocytes.

This summer, through the Amgen Scholars Program, Truman is working with the Farmer lab of the Department of MCD Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, which studies the inter- and intracellular mechanisms that drive and disrupt craniofacial development. Truman is attempting to visualize the periosteal dura, a layer of the meningeal tissues that sits just below the calvaria of the skull. While it is understood that the meninges are integral to proper calvaria bone growth and function, it is unclear if the periosteal dura has a supporting role in this interaction. Truman and the Farmer lab hope that visualizing the periosteal dura throughout the stages of zebrafish development will elucidate the relationship the periosteal dura has between the calvaria and the rest of the meningeal tissues.

Truman would like to thank Dr. Farmer, Benny Mosquera, Katie Wilhem, and the Amgen Foundation for investing their time, energy, and resources in him and his summer research project. Their support has made for an unforgettable summer of scientific and self-discovery.

Alyssa is a rising senior at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo studying Biochemistry. At Cal Poly, Alyssa works in Dr. Andres Martinez’s research laboratory and has been testing enzyme stabilizers on paper for applications on point-of-care (POC) microfluidic paper-based devices.

At UCLA, Alyssa is conducting research under Dr. Daniel T. Kamei in the Department of Bioengineering. The Kamei Laboratory focuses on the development of novel POC diagnostics and was the first to apply aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) to lateral-flow immunoassays (LFAs). ATPSs can be used to pre-concentrate a target biomarker into a smaller volume to improve the sensitivity of LFAs. Previous studies done by the Kamei Laboratory have shown that polymer-salt ATPSs can decrease the LFA limit of detection by 10-fold. However, because polymer-polymer ATPSs are more temperature resistant than polymer-salt ATPSs, they are more applicable at the POC. Alyssa’s current project is to optimize the use of a polymer-polymer ATPS composed of polyethylene glycol and dextran for use with LFAs. Since dextran is too viscous to efficiently flow across a LFA, the enzyme dextranase will be used to cleave dextran into smaller subunits. This should improve the flow of dextran by decreasing viscosity and consequently, increase the sensitivity of the LFA.

Alyssa would like to thank Dr. Daniel Kamei, Frances Nicklen, and all of the members of the Kamei Laboratory for being so welcoming and helping her grow as a scientist. She would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation for funding this amazing summer research opportunity.

Originally from Tucson, AZ, Sean is a rising senior at Northwestern University studying biology with minors in Data Science and French. At Northwestern, Sean works in the lab of Dr. Thomas Hope, where he has highlighted trends in PET/CT and vaccine trial data to better understand the dynamics of HIV infection. He is passionate about science education, as well as finding ways to integrate computational biology work with the discovery of niche coffee shops in Chicago.

At UCLA, Sean is working in the Meyer lab to decipher complex immune cell relationships within and between patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is used to profile heterogeneity in biological systems, but current analysis strategies lack the ability to robustly differentiate patient-to-patient variation when comparing samples across many different individuals. To profile multi-experiment scRNA-seq data, the Meyer lab has adapted PARAFAC2, a multidimensional variance decomposition method, to first align data between experiments and subsequently perform dimensionality reduction. PARAFAC2 enables a 3-dimensional approach to linear decompositions of scRNA-seq data, and is thus better able to model natural variation. This summer, Sean is applying this method to 1.2 million cells derived from 260 patients, with the goal of using PARAFAC2 to strengthen understanding of the cell-level changes that contribute to the SLE disease state.

Sean would like to thank Andrew Ramirez, Dr. Meyer, and the rest of the Meyer lab for their invaluable support throughout the summer, as well as the Amgen Scholars program at UCLA for this opportunity.

Aishini is a rising senior at UC Davis. There, she conducts research in the Ori-McKenney Lab on the phosphorylation of microtubule-associated protein tau following traumatic brain injury and has investigated the underlying dopaminergic and serotonergic neuronal activity in the development of tau pathology.

At UCLA, Aishini works under Dr. Anthony Covarrubias in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics to conduct research on cell cycle regulators p21 and p16 in senescent macrophages. Cellular senescence, a cell fate characterized by irreversible cell-cycle arrest in response to various stressors, is an emerging driver of aging and aging-associated diseases. The Covarrubias lab has identified macrophages as a new cell type that can undergo senescence. Subsequent tests performed by the lab indicate an increase in senescent marker p21 in senescent macrophages, but a decrease in senescent marker p16. Aishini’s project in the Covarrubias lab thus entails determining the role of p21 and p16 in the senescent programming of macrophages. She is using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to generate p16 and p21 knock-outs in primary macrophages. Then, following treatment with irradiation, which is known to induce senescence through DNA damage, she will conduct various assays on these cells to test the effects on senescent programming. She hypothesizes that p21, but not p16, is important for macrophage senescent programming, and overall aims to identify markers of cellular senescence in resident macrophages.

Aishini would like to thank the entire Covarrubias lab, especially Dr. Anthony Covarrubias and graduate student Grasiela Torres, and the Amgen Foundation for this opportunity to enhance her skills as a researcher.

Elise is a rising senior at Western Washington University, where she conducts undergraduate research in Dr. Jeanine Amacher’s structural biology and protein biochemistry lab. While in the Amacher lab, Elise has studied protein-peptide interactions in a variety of proteins/domains – including Sortase A enzymes, SH3 domains, and PDZ domains – and recently published a first-author journal article.

At UCLA, Elise works for Dr. Lily Wu in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology; her focus for the summer is to investigate the inhibitory effect of statins on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines. Statins are commonly used to lower blood cholesterol by inhibiting HMG CoA reductase but have been seen to pleiotropically inhibit a variety of aggressive cancer types, including TNBC. TNBC does not exhibit overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and does not express estrogen or progesterone receptors (ER and PR). Two of the most common therapies for breast cancer are anti-HER2 and endocrine-based and are therefore not effective against TNBC. Statins present a possible therapeutic method for treating this type of cancer, but not much is currently known about the mechanism/pathways at play. This project aims to gain insight into the inhibitory action of statins in this context, particularly as it relates to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, metastasis, and hypoxia.

Elise is very thankful for this wonderful opportunity to work with everyone in the Wu lab and for the support of both the Amgen Foundation and UCLA.

Mark is a rising senior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he conducts organic synthesis research in Dr. Scott Eagon’s medicinal chemistry lab. In the “E-Lab,” he attempts to synthesize small molecule benzoxazole inhibitors of casein kinase 2 (CK2), an understudied kinase that phosphorylates over 700 different residues and is known to be upregulated in numerous types of cancers.

This summer at UCLA, Mark works for Dr. Peter Clark in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology where his focus is on expressing Hexokinase 2 (HK2) and both identifying and characterizing potential small molecule inhibitors of it. Elevated glucose consumption via aerobic glycolysis—known as the Warburg Effect—is fundamental to nearly all cancers and hexokinase catalyzes the first rate-limiting step of glycolysis. Given this and the fact that HK1 and HK2 provide redundant protection from loss of function for either of these isoforms of hexokinase, the Clark Lab aims to selectively inhibit HK1^– HK2⁺ cancers (40 percent of hepatocellular carcinoma cases) by identifying small molecule inhibitors of HK2. Using enzymatic and thermal shift curve assays, Mark looks to better understand the mechanisms behind which small molecules identified from high-throughput screening inhibit HK2.

Mark would like to thank Dr. Clark and his mentor, Stefani Perez, as well as Ph.D. candidate K.M. Ryan and undergraduate Rachel Jiang for their wonderful mentorship and support. He would also like to thank UCLA and the Amgen Foundation for the opportunity to explore a different field of research this summer.

Matthew is a rising senior majoring in microbiology at Oregon State University. There, he works in Dr. Hannah Rowe’s lab where he studies interactions between the microbiome and influenza A virus that contribute to the stabilization and propagation of viral infections.

As an Amgen scholar at UCLA Matthew works in Dr. Lili Yang’s lab in the department of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics. The Yang lab focuses on developing novel cancer immunotherapies by studying the mechanisms behind antitumor immunity. Matthew’s project specifically focuses on the effects of creatine supplementation on the cellular activation of dendritic cells within the energy-poor tumor microenvironment (TME). Previous research has shown that creatine is important for preventing an “exhausted state” in T-cells within the TME and that creatine supplementation results in decreased tumor growth in mouse melanoma models. However, the effects of creatine on other members of the tumor microenvironment is largely understudied. The goal of Matthew’s work in the Yang lab is to look for activation markers in non-treated, creatine supplemented and ATP supplemented dendritic cells in order to gain a better understanding of how creatine affects the cellular activation of dendritic cells and how it may play a role in disease detection and immune activation.

Alex is a rising senior at UCLA majoring in Neuroscience and Design | Media Arts. Since his sophomore year, he has been performing research with Dr. Sotiris Masmanidis’s Lab at UCLA to study the neural mechanisms involved in reward learning and movement.

During the UCLA Amgen Scholars Program, Alex is investigating the behavioral and electrophysiological characteristics of gait and locomotion in healthy and Parkinson-like model mice. Gait impairments are characteristic of cognitive decline and some neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD). PD pathology includes symptoms such as dopaminergic neuron death in neural circuits involving the basal ganglia and implicated in proper movement modulation. Preliminary data from the Masmanidis Lab has demonstrated basal ganglia neural encoding for limb gait parameters in healthy mice and disruption of such neural firing in neurotoxin Parkinson-like mice models. However, such neurotoxin models, such as induced dopaminergic neuron death with 6-hydroxydopamine, do not fully characterize PD pathology, such as development of misfolded α-synuclein aggregates including Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites. Using computational ethology for behavioral gait tracking and electrophysiological recordings of the basal ganglia, Alex is exploring gait in healthy mice and mice injected with pathological α-synuclein in the basal ganglia to quantify the behavioral and neurological deficits associated with PD.

Alex would like to thank the UCLA Amgen Scholars Program, the Amgen Foundation, and the Masmanidis Lab for the opportunity and their support in his growth as a researcher and scientist.

Jerry is a junior at Amherst College pursuing majors in Biochemistry and Economics. While at Amherst College, he conducted research with Professor Lara Halaoui, studying the effects of dopant rare-earth metals on the electrocatalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction for water splitting.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Jerry is working in Dr. Neil Harris’ lab in the department of neurosurgery. His project in the Harris lab involves a collaboration with the Dr. Ina Wanner lab to investigate neurodegeneration in brain cells following repetitive minor traumatic brain injuries (TBI) using immunofluorescence. There are many studies showing that moderate and severe TBI leads to changes in the brain’s pathology and cognition in both the short and long-term. However, recent findings suggest that repetitive minor TBI also has short and long-term effects. In the Harris lab, Jerry will undergo an explorative study to determine where and to quantify how much neurodegeneration is occurring in the brain following repeated minor TBI in the acute phase. He will do this by staining mouse brains with antibodies that detect neurodegeneration and imaging them. This study has great relevance to contact athletes who often encounter multiple mild brain traumas throughout a season of play. Furthermore, it will further research on the early detection of and cures for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Jerry would like to thank the Amgen Foundation, the Harris Lab, and the Wanner Lab for their extensive mentorship and generous support in his exploration into the world of science.

Alexis is a senior at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) majoring in Public Health Sciences. While at UCI, she conducted research in the Lee-Jang lab working on understanding the basics of kidney metabolism under different experimental conditions that emulate those of human diet patterns.

As a visiting Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Alexis is working in Dr. Michael Teitell’s lab in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Her project in the Teitell lab consists of understanding the effect that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has on extracellular vesicle activity, specifically exosomes, in cancer. The lab has generated preliminary data showing a connection between mtDNA and exosome expression. However, there is no indication of how mtDNA defects may impact the progression of cancer downstream. The Teitell lab seeks to define this relationship by engineering cells with mtDNA mutations using a technique, MitoPunch, that was established internally. Once cells are engineered with the desired mutations, they can be selected for and metabolically characterized. The exosomes produced from these engineered cell lines can be isolated and their contents identified. The results obtained from the experiments conducted could allow for the development of new therapeutic agents that target exosome expression in cancer.

Alexis thanks the Amgen Foundation, the UCLA Amgen Scholars Program, and the members of the Teitell lab at UCLA for their mentorship and support.

Daria Azizad is an undergraduate Neuroscience student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is particularly interested in studying molecular mechanisms and biological pathways in relation to human disease. In the Bhaduri Lab in the Department of Biological Chemistry, Daria primarily studies cortical organoid metabolism, glioblastoma invasion in the organoid system, and does bioinformatics projects to investigate cell type through RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data. 

As an Amgen Scholar, Daria is studying the influence of hormones on cortical cell fate specification and metabolism in the organoid system. The cortical organoid model system is an effective tool for the study of cortical development and related pathologies; it lacks many connections that the endogenous brain has, including interactions with the endocrine system. Therefore, the organoid model acts as a “blank slate” in which many factors found in vivo are not present. Thus, through selectively introducing factors to study their role, their function may be further elucidated. Daria’s project aims to better characterize the role of the hormones estradiol, progesterone, and T4 in early cortical development, with the overall goal of investigating the effects of the stated hormones on the metabolic profile, gene expression, morphology, and cell survival in the cortical organoid.

Daria would like to thank the Amgen Foundation and the Bhaduri Lab for the incredible opportunity to develop and execute her independent project and enhance her skills as a researcher.

Alvaro is a rising fourth-year Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology Major at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate, he worked in Dr. Julia Mack’s laboratory developing machine learning models for image segmentation and imaging calcium signaling activity in zebrafish embryos. The Mack Lab is interested in elucidating mechanisms of endothelial mechanotransduction in the context of vascular health and disease.

For the UCLA Amgen Scholars Program, Alvaro will be conducting research in the laboratory of Dr. David Nathanson in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. The Nathanson Laboratory focuses on understanding the functional biology of brain cancer and the development of novel therapeutics to target glioblastoma, an aggressive and lethal malignant tumor. Aberrations in the signaling cascades of ErbB/HER family of tyrosine kinase receptors are a hallmark of several types of cancer; specifically, mutations in the EGFR/HER1 receptor can lead to uncontrolled cellular proliferation and migration. Therefore, this pathway presents itself as a target for therapeutics aiming to combat cancer growth. For his project, Alvaro will be investigating the selectivity and potency of a novel small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor against metastatic EGFR-driven non-small-cell lung cancer. This research could provide invaluable information for further inquires into the novel drug’s ability to target other EGFR-driven cancer types.

Alvaro would like to thank Dr. Nathanson and his graduate student mentor, Quincy Okobi, for all the support and an unforgettable summer. Alvaro would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation for this opportunity to conduct research during the summer.

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.

Cynthia is a rising third year at UC Santa Barbara majoring in Pharmacology. At UCSB, she works in Dr. Weimbs’ lab, where she studies the mechanism of polycystic kidney disease.

As a UCLA Amgen Scholar, Cynthia works in Dr. Crosbie’s lab in the Integrative Biology and Physiology department studying muscular dystrophy. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked childhood onset degenerative disease caused by loss of function mutations in the DMD gene that encodes for dystrophin, affecting 1 in 5700 males. Patients with DMD have muscle weakness, leading to loss of ambulation as well as respiratory and cardiac dysfunction, ultimately leading to death. Dr. Crosbie has identified a transmembrane protein, sarcospan (SSPN), that associates with major adhesion complexes that provide stability to the cell during muscle contraction. Overexpression of SSPN in dystrophin-deficient mdx mice (murine model of DMD), improved skeletal muscle pathology and cardiac physiology. Previous studies have taken a targeted approach to determine which proteins are important for SSPN to ameliorate dystrophic pathology in mdx mice. To identify the global molecular mechanisms underlying SSPN’s cardioprotective effect, the Crosbie lab performed proteomics analysis on 1-year old wild-type, mdx, and mdx^TG (transgenically overexpressing SSPN) hearts. Cynthia’s project will involve identifying the pathways of interest that could be contributing to the rescue of DMD by SSPN in cardiac tissue and to confirm the proteomics data by immunofluorescence analysis and western blots.

Cynthia would like to thank the Amgen Foundation, Dr. Crosbie, and mentor Hafsa Mamsa for supporting her interest in research.

Kate is a rising junior studying Biochemistry at Vassar College. There Kate studies the structure and character of plasmid protein orf-90 under the mentorship of Dr. Krystle McLaughlin. The McLaughlin lab investigates the role of plasmid proteins in conferring antibiotic resistance. As an AMGEN Scholar at UCLA, Kate is working in Dr. Varghese John’s lab. Her project examines compounds that inhibit PLpro, a main protease integral to SARS-CoV-2 replication. Protease inhibitors could be a crucial protective agent against SARS-CoV-2, as they could be administered to infected individuals. By diminishing viral replication, the protease inhibitors diminish the prevalence of severe SARS-CoV-2 symptoms, long term SARS-CoV-2 symptoms, and hospitalizations.

The John lab has identified two PLPro inhibitors: DDL-701 and DDL-715. Kate will measure the PLpro IC50 of these compounds to elucidate the proper dose. Subsequently, Kate will determine whether new chemical entities inhibit PLpro in a PLpro activity assay. These compounds will be derived from successful SARS-CoV-2 protease inhibitors, such as Paxlovid TM, DDL-701, and DDL-715. Employing Paxlovid TM with the most potent PLpro inhibitors may amplify the inhibition of viral replication. Kate will then examine the Phase 1 metabolism of DDL-701, DDL-715, and any other identified inhibitors. The results will help elucidate how the protease inhibitors are metabolized and the rate of this metabolism. Kate would like to thank Dr. Varghese John and Jesus Campagna for their invaluable support, as well as the Amgen Foundation for this opportunity.

Karl is a rising senior at UC Davis, majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Since his sophomore year he has performed research in Dr. Wolf Heyer’s lab studying BRCA2, which is a tumor suppressor protein involved in homologous recombination.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, he is working in the lab of Dr. Guillaume Chanfreau in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry studying a recently discovered hybrid mRNA-snoRNA (hmsnoRNA). SnoRNA on their own can be transcribed from DNA in 3 different ways: independent transcriptional units, polycistronic clusters, or within the introns of pre-mRNAs. When snoRNAs are transcribed via introns, splicing is an important step in the formation of mature snoRNAs. The Chanfreau lab discovered that when splicing is interrupted, it can lead to the development of hmsnoRNAs. HmsnoRNAs consists of the processed 5’ end of an unspliced mRNA with a mature snoRNA on the 3’ end. As a result of their 5’ mRNA-like structure, hmsnoRNAs are exported into the cytoplasm and degraded via the mRNA decay pathway. Karl’s project focuses on examining whether or not hmsnoRNA can be translated into proteins. His project will utilize Western blot to detect for a FLAG tag which is coded in the theoretical coding region of the hmsnoRNA transcript being used.

Karl would like to thank the UCLA Amgen Scholars program for this opportunity, and Dr. Guillaume Chanfreau, Dr. Michelle Gibbs, and his graduate student mentor Sam DeMario for their assistance and encouragement in fostering his growth as a scientist.

Noah is a rising senior at Brown University majoring in chemical physics. At Brown, Noah works in Professor Brenda Rubenstein’s research group, where he employs replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the mechanism behind the gout-preventing properties of Proteoglycan 4.

As a UCLA Amgen Scholar, Noah works under Professor Kendall Houk in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. This summer, Noah and the Houk group are working in collaboration with Professor David Baker’s group at the University of Washington to design the first ever enzyme catalyst for tetrazine cycloaddition reactions, a class of bioorthogonal reactions whose utility in molecular imaging and other biomedical applications can benefit from an effective enzyme catalyst. Recently, the Baker group used their newly developed deep-learning based methods to design many protein scaffolds with cavities that could have the potential to become catalytic binding sites. Utilizing their designs as a starting point, Noah will employ rotamer interaction field docking to modify the cavities of these designs so that it can bind and stabilize the tetrazine cycloaddition reaction’s transition state, the structure of which he will obtain via density functional theory calculations. Then, he will use a Monte-Carlo-based sequence design protocol to modify the amino acid sequences around the catalytic cavities in order to ensure that the designs are not only enzymatically active, but also possess high folding stability.

Noah would like to thank Dr. Kendall Houk and Declan Evans for their extensive mentorship, as well as the Amgen Foundation for supporting this research project.

Sofia is a rising junior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Computer Science at Duke University. At Duke, she works in Dr. Gustavo Silva’s lab to study the mechanisms by which cells regulate their mitochondria in the face of oxidative stress, a harmful process which damages cellular biomolecules, fostering cell death, and contributes to neurodegeneration.

As a UCLA Amgen Scholar, Sofia is working in Dr. Lindsay De Biase’s lab, which focuses on understanding why and how microglial regional specialization affects basal ganglia neuronal function as well as the viability of these neurons in the face of aging and pathology. Microglia are involved in almost every important brain process, spanning from early development to aging and neurodegeneration, and are most well-known for their phagocytic role as the brain’s immune cells, clearing the brain of dying neurons, synapses, debris, protein aggregates, and pathogens. In the De Biase Lab, Sofia is working on an assay to accurately visualize and quantify the phagocytic abilities of microglia in acute brain sections of mice. Development of this assay will enable more robust analysis of microglial phagocytosis in a variety of contexts such as developmental circuit maturation and circuit breakdown during neurodegeneration.

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.

Stephanie is a senior studying microbiology at the University of California – Riverside. At her home institution, Stephanie conducts research in Dr. Adler Dillman’s nematology lab. The Dillman lab investigates how insect hosts recognize/initiate an immune response to parasitic nematode invasion and how parasites evade/suppress host immunity. Stephanie studies bacterial-induced immune responses of Drosophila melanogaster CRISPR mutants to examine the potential immune functions of various enzymatic homologs of the lipid and eicosanoid synthesis pathways.

As a UCLA Amgen Scholar, Stephanie works in Dr. Peter Bradley’s parasitology lab in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics. The Bradley lab studies the molecular biology of the obligate intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii, focusing on the roles that secretory organelles play during host-cell invasion. T.gondii causes Toxoplasmosis, a severe infection that develops in immunocompromised or pregnant individuals via contaminated food and feline feces. Stephanie’s project investigates the roles of T.gondii aurora kinases, TgArk2 and TgArk3, in parasite cell division and centrosome function. She explored whether the localization of TgArk2 is altered in a TgArk3 knockout background and how the loss of both TgArk2 and TgArk3 affects parasite fitness. By utilizing CRISPR/Cas9, cloning, and immunofluorescence assays, the lab aims to better understand these kinases and the clues they may provide for developing new drugs targeting parasite-specific functions in T. gondii and other apicomplexan parasites.

Stephanie would like to thank the entire Bradley Lab, especially Dr. Bradley and Rebecca Pasquarelli, for their mentorship and the Amgen Foundation and UCLA Amgen Scholars Program for their generous support.

Elaine Nagahara is a rising senior at Johns Hopkins University majoring in materials science and engineering with a concentration in biomaterials. In Dr. Luo Gu’s Lab at Johns Hopkins, she tunes material properties such as stiffness and viscoelasticity in alginate hydrogels to study their effects on cell behavior.

At UCLA, Elaine is translating her research background to investigating how changes in biomaterial properties affect the response of immune cells. While biomaterials have a large variety of healthcare applications, their success depends on how the immune system reacts to them. Once biomaterials enter the body, they interact with a myriad of molecular signals and different immune cell types via their material properties that modify the local microenvironment. This summer, Elaine is specifically studying how the presence of cell-adhesion peptides and the type of crosslinker used in hydrogel microporous annealed particle (MAP) scaffolds affect the response of antigen-presenting immune cells. MAP scaffolds are a novel class of injectable biomaterials that support the
regeneration of damaged tissue by facilitating host cells to infiltrate and form healthy complex tissue networks. She will create the MAP scaffolds with different conditions via microfluidics before seeding them with macrophages and dendritic cells. She will quantify their response by measuring the amount of scaffold uptake with fluorescence microscopy. These findings are important in creating an immunomodulatory platform that can target specific immune responses to advance tissue regeneration and other future applications such as vaccine development.

Elaine would like to thank the Di Carlo Lab for enriching and supporting her research interests, and the Amgen Foundation for funding this opportunity

University of California, San Diego

Junior

Biochemistry

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Albert Lai

Angie Santos is a rising junior at UCSD majoring in biochemistry. There, she conducts research in the Olivier George Lab, an addiction research laboratory, investigating the behavioral and neurological components of addiction via single-cell whole-brain imaging (iDisco+).

As part of the UCLA Amgen Scholars program, Angie is in the Albert Lai Lab in the Department of Neurology. The Lai Lab investigates the use of epigenetic editing to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy against glioblastomas, an aggressive form of primary brain cancer. Glioblastomas have the lowest survival rate compared to other brain tumor types and there’s currently no known cure. Such a poor prognosis emphasizes how necessary it is for the development of possible therapeutics to help treat glioblastoma patients. Angie’s summer project focuses on the validation of a potential gene therapy that could improve glioblastoma patient outcomes.

Angie would like to thank Dr. Albert Lai, Blaine Eldred, and the rest of the Lai Lab for their incredible support and mentorship throughout the program. She would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation for making her research experience at UCLA possible.

Sahana is a rising junior studying the structure and function of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) using biophysical methods under Dr. Elisar Barbar at Oregon State University. There, her research project has focused on studying RNA interactions with the SARS-CoV-2 N protein linker region.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Sahana is conducting research under Dr. Joe Loo in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her research for the summer leverages top-down mass spectrometry to study the protein cytochrome c and its interaction with ATP. Cytochrome c, or cytc, is a soluble heme protein that plays an important role in the electron transport chain of the mitochondria. Cytc has an ATP-binding site of high affinity and specificity, which is highly conserved across different species. Previous biochemical and molecular dynamics simulations demonstrated that ATP can effectively stabilize protein structure and inhibit aggregation. Preliminary work in the Loo Lab has shown that bovine cytc was stabilized by nonspecific ATP binding but also promoted the formation of a cytc dimer at a certain concentration threshold, a novel discovery. The lab hopes to better characterize the binding between cytc and ATP and investigate if cytc dimerization is relevant in nature.

Sahana would like to thank Dr. Joe Loo, her graduate student mentor Jessie Le, and the rest of the Loo Lab for all of their guidance and support. She would also like to thank the Amgen Scholars Program at UCLA for this invaluable opportunity to grow as a scientist.

Priyanka is a rising third year student at Stanford University majoring in computer science. At UCLA, Priyanka is with the Meyer lab in the Department of Bioengineering. The Meyer lab applies experimental and computational strategies to measure, model, and therapeutically manipulate cell to cell interactions.

Priyanka’s project focuses on computational methods to improve system serology research, research that broadens our understanding of antibody-mediated protection by quantifying both the antigen-binding and Fc biophysical properties of antibodies. Previously, the lab has created a general model for predicting the interaction of Fc receptors with effector cells, incorporating multivalent, multi-receptor binding. The lab has also shown how coupled matrix-tensor factorization is promising in reducing the dimensionality of system serology data while still retaining the most important aspects of the data. A limitation of tensor factorization, however, is that it can only show linear relationships, whereas immune system complex coupling with receptors exhibits nonlinear behavior due to the varying biophysical properties of receptors, antibodies, and individual patient homeostasis. Therefore, there is a need to represent nonlinearity in reduction techniques to make more biologically relevant analyses and conclusions.

This summer, Priyanka is developing a novel tensor-based dimensionality reduction that incorporates a mechanistic binding model and reflects the biological properties of immune system complexes. By constructing decompositions from known antibody properties, she hopes to be able to reduce the scale of future studies by highlighting both redundant and novel measurements or properties that cannot be deciphered from current methods. Priyanka would like to thank the Meyer lab for their mentorship and support, and the Amgen foundation for giving her this opportunity.

Margot is a rising senior, majoring in Biochemistry and minoring in Mathematics, at Mount Holyoke College. There, they have worked in the lab of Dr. Kathryn McMenimen since September 2020, where they are performing a holistic screening of heat shock protein induction in response to tau aggregation in D. melanogaster in order to study how tauopathies disrupt the chaperone response.

As an Amgen Scholar at UCLA, Margot is working in the Bitan lab in the department of Neurology. This lab studies the abnormal self-association of proteins and their role in human diseases. Margot’s project focuses specifically on the role of brain-derived exosomes in the tau seeding process. Indeed, tauopathies are a major class of neurodegenerative diseases caused by the misfolding of tau protein. Interestingly, they do not progress randomly through the brain but rather via specific disease-dependent neural networks. It is believed that exosomes, a type of extracellular vesicle that play an integral role in cell-cell communication, can act as vehicles for the disease-associated proteins between cells in the central nervous system. As a result, Margot is using fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry to investigate whether exosomes from different brain regions and cell types possess discrete tau seeding capabilities in order to gain a better understanding of the progression of these diseases.

Margot would like to thank the Bitan lab for their guidance and support, as well as the Amgen Foundation for providing them with this opportunity.

Cole is a rising senior at UCLA majoring in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology.  He has worked in Dr. Volker Hartenstein’s lab since his junior year.  The Hartenstein Lab is primarily interested in central nervous system development in Drosophila melanogaster, but Cole’s project investigates the aging Drosophila blood-brain barrier (BBB).

The BBB of humans declines with age and is correlated with age-related onset of neurological diseases.  Furthermore, mammalian models have shown loss of BBB function as a contributing cause of such diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.  Age-related changes to the Drosophila BBB are not understood, but if a decrease in function is observed, the plethora of genetic tools in Drosophila could identify causes of the decline, which may have homology to causes in mammals.  To determine whether a decrease in Drosophila BBB function occurs with age, Cole is investigating the permeability of the young adult and aged BBB using nanoinjected, intrahemolymph dextran.  A functional BBB is impermeable to dextran, but dysfunctional BBBs are not, allowing dextran permeability to indicate BBB function.  To better understand potential causes of any age-related loss of BBB function observed, Cole is performing immunofluorescence for septate junction proteins, which are responsible for the BBB’s impermeability, to gauge their expression levels. 

Cole would like to thank Dr. Volker Hartenstein, Amelia Hartenstein, and Dr. Ceazar Nave for the development of this project and their instruction on the protocols.  Cole also thanks the Amgen Foundation and Amgen Scholars Program at UCLA for this resourceful and engaging summer research opportunity.

Eva is a rising senior at the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and a minor in Biomedical Research. She has been a part of Dr. David Nathanson’s lab since October 2019. During her time there, she assisted in the development of a patient-derived glioma xenograft library and transitioned to developing novel potent, brain-penetrant drugs against glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive of primary tumors of the brain with a median survival time of less than fifteen months and no available cure, in part due to its extensive molecular heterogeneity. This heterogeneity makes it difficult to classify GBM into clinically relevant subtypes. However, recent studies have outlined a cell lineage-based stratification for GBM, in which a subtype of GBM may be dependent on human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Currently available HER2 inhibitors are unable to efficiently cross the blood brain barrier to inhibit brain tumors. Thus, the goal of Nathanson Lab is to produce a potent HER2 inhibitor that is also highly brain penetrant. To work towards this goal, Eva is characterizing drug potency and selectivity through IC50 assays and western blots in HER2-dependent cell lines, as well as brain penetrance through pharmacokinetics.

Eva would like to thank the members of the Nathanson Lab for their mentorship and supporting her growth as a scientist. She would also like to thank the Amgen Foundation and Biomedical Research Minor for their guidance and providing an opportunity to focus on her research.