Previous Research
Plant Health and Climate Change: Effects of Coastal Acidification on the Metabolism of Zostera marina in South Bay, VA
Over the course of two semesters, I characterized and quantifyed primary and secondary metabolites from eelgrass samples, including phenolics, lignins, proteins, and carbohydrates in eelgrass tissue samples from 17 sites throughout a restored eelgrass bed in South Bay, Va.
Primary Investigator: Professor Tom Arnold
Statins and Inflammation: Isoformal Differences of Protein Kinase B's/Akt's role in IL-1b and TNFa expression following isoprenoid depletion in human monocytes and mouse macrophages
My lab group's final project for Molecular Pathophysiology was to investigate the role of Protein Kinase B (or Akt) in the expression of cytokine genes (which mediate the inflammatory response) after cells are treated with statins, which can make cells mimic the effects of the genetic disorder Mevalonate Kinase Deficency (MKD), which affects thousands of indivicuals and is characterized by periodic intense inflammatory symproms (fever, hives, coughing, etc. ).
We looked at Akt's activation (via immunoblotting) and studied the effects of inhibiting Akt on cytokine expression in both mouse macrophages and human monocytes.
We found that Akt's relationship with cytokine expression differed between cytokines, and that Akt's three isoforms likely play separate roles in the production of Interleukin-1b mRNA in both macrophages and monocytes.
Dasies and Cancer: Electrophilic Modification of Heat Shock Proteins by Sesquaterpene Lactones in Leukemic Stem Cells
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Principal Investigator: Rebecca Connor
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Identified heat shock response proteins covalently modified by a natural product electrophile and its derivatives
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Analyzed gene expression levels in THP-1 human leukemia cells via rt-PCR
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Expressed and purified recombinant Hsp70 in E. coli
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Presented results at Lebanon Valley College (July, 2015) and the American Chemical Sociery General Meeting (August 2015)