I am a rising sophomore majoring in Biology and also part of the Solid Gold Sound,
PEERS, and a CARE Fellow member. I am involved in research within the Sears lab
under the mentorship of Dr. Karen Sears.
In the Sears Lab, I study the cellular basis of post-natal development in mammals.
Post-natal growth is essential to mammalian physiology and is highly variable
across species allowing them to grow in a range of body sizes. These growth rates
are high in early life, but then tend to decrease rapidly as the organism reaches full
adult size. This decline following early post-natal growth results from the decrease
in the rate of cellular proliferation caused by a downregulation of the
growth-regulating genetic program.
In the lab, I am collaborating on an extensive genome study in mice and opposum
to establish the roles of particular genes responsible for the epigenetic regulation
in cellular processes (proliferation, apoptosis, etc.).The hypothesis is that
proliferation rates will decrease in tissues from mice and opposum starting from
birth to sexual maturity, but that the specific pattern of decline varies among
tissues and species. The methods in the lab I am utilizing include collecting tissues
from mice and opossums. The tissues then are embedded, cryosection, stained for
cell processes, and finally, are photographed and analyzed using microscopes to
quantify the changes occurring during post-natal development among these species
and different tissues.