Emily Friedman

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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 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.