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.