Research Assistant and Data Analyst in the Thakar Lab at the University of Rochester Medical Center - Rochester, NY
In my position at the Thakar lab, I built upon the work that I started in 2021 during a summer undergraduate research fellowship. Particularly, I led an independent research project where I constructed computational models of certain gene regulatory networks in B cells and investigated their response at the single-cell level in disease and health. This work entailed sourcing network topologies from scientific databases, procuring gene annotations via the Ensembl genome database project's Perl API, and utilizing R and Python to process intricate single-cell RNA expression datasets. Employing techniques like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and clustering methods such as K-means, t-SNE, and UMAP, I studied gene expression patterns. I also used a genetic algorithm to simulate immune cell activation in various patient conditions including HIV, breast cancer, lung cancer, and COVID-19. Moreover, to validate the significance of my findings, I employed statistical tests such as Chi-squared, t-test, and ANOVA. My engagement extended beyond research as I actively participated in weekly lab meetings, where I honed my skills in analyzing scientific literature, exchanged research progress updates, and incorporated insights from fellow lab members' projects.