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.