The BUGS class of 2018 came from an array of disciplines ranging from biomedical engineering, chemistry, human health, all the way to film production and cinematic animation. Below are the topics of their individual research projects as presented at
the Finale Symposium in August.
Daria Axelsson
’21 Pasadena City College
Mathematics & Computer Science
PI: Remo Rohs
“Modeling Cellular Senescence
Through Bayes Nets”
Aaron Baker
’20 UC Berkeley
Cognitive Science
PI: Scott Fraser
“Mapping Neural Activity Across
the Sleeping Zebrafish Brain”
Natalie Binczewski
’19 USC Dornsife
Biological Sciences
PI: Vsevolod Katritch
“Angiotensin II Type 2 Receptor (AT2R)
Ligand Design: Hit Optimization”
Hannah Bosnian
’19 USC Cinematic Arts
Animation
PI: Ray Stevens
The Kuhn Hicks Lab explained
Animated Short
Ryan Brankovic
’19 USC Dornsife
Physics
PI: Valery Fokin
“Efficient Synthesis of Fluorescent Imaging Probe for Pancreatic Beta-Cell Analysis”
Kylie Burdsall
’19 USC Dornsife
Biochemistry
PI: Ray Stevens
“Gaining a Systematic View of
Phosphorylation in Pancreatic Beta Cells”
Sean Burkitt
’18 USC Viterbi
Biomedical Engineering
PI: Cristina Zavaleta
“3D Volumetric Analysis Tool for
Subcutaneous Tumor Assessment”
Michael Chin
’19 CSU Long Beach
Chemistry & Biochemistry
PI: Valery Fokin
“Synthesis of Tyrosine-based Polysulfates”
Daniel Flores
’21 USC Dornsife
Biological Sciences
PI: Peter Kuhn
“Developing metal labeled antibody panels
for characterizing Circulating Tumor Cells”
Alfred Xavier Garcia
’18 USC Dornsife
Health & Human Science
PI: Anat Erdreich-Epstein
“Subcellular Localization of PID1
in Cultured Brain Cancer Cell Lines”
Elizabeth Harty
’18 USC Cinematic Arts
Film & TV Production
PI: Ray Stevens
“The Pancreatic Beta Cell Project
The Film”
Jacqueline Howard
’20 USC Cinematic Arts
Animation
PI: Ray Stevens
The Kuhn Hicks Lab explained
Animated Short
Brianna Ibarrola
’20 USC Dornsife
Environmental Studies
PI: Scott Fraser
“Mapping Neural Circuitry
in Euprymna Scolopes”
Sujin Jeong
’19 USC Dornsife
Health & Human Sciences
PI: Peter Kuhn
“CAR-T Cell Therapy”
Zhangjingyi (Kelly) Jiang
’21 USC Viterbi
Biomedical Engineering
PI: Eunji Chung
“In Vivo Biocompatibility of
Theranostic Peptide Micelles”
Anastasiya Kats
’19 USC Dornsife
Environmental Science & Health
PI: Lisa Aziz-Zadeh
“The Addition of a Sensory and Motor Domain to the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): an Analysis of Classification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)”
Preeya Katti
’19 USC Dornsife
Human Biology
PI: Peter Kuhn
“Single-cell Genomic analysis of
Triple Negative Breast Cancer”
Kristina Kaypaghian
’20 Viterbi
Biomedical Engineering
PI: Andrea Armani
“Portable, rapid magneto-optical
diagnostic for early-stage malaria
utilizing a smartphone-based biosensor”
Alexis Kelley
’20 UC Merced
Applied Mathematics
PI: Peter Kuhn
“Survival Analysis of Prostate Cancer”
Austen Le
’19 USC Dornsife
Biochemistry
PI: Vsevolod Katritch
“Creating libraries of novel compounds
for structure-based drug discovery”
Joshua Limlingan
’20 USC Dornsife
Human Biology
PI: Barbara Sargent
“Scaffolding Learning to Encourage
Selective Hip-Knee Movement in
Infants Born Full-term and Preterm”
Humphrey Lotana
’18 University of Southern Maine
Chemistry
PI: Ray Stevens
“Structure and Function of
the Pancreatic Beta Cell”
Caitlyn Miller
’20 USC Dornsife
Biochemistry
PI: Steve Kay
“Circadian Rhythm”
Sanraj Mittal
’20 USC Dornsife
Biochemistry
PI: Ray Stevens
“Proteomic Analysis of the
Pancreatic Beta Cell”
Harrison Moyle
’20 University of North Carolina
Biology
PI: Ray Stevens
“Structure and Function of
the Pancreatic Beta Cell”
Abhishek Sharma
’19 USC Dornsife
Human Biology
PI: Vadim Cherezov
“Membrane Protein Structure
Determination of PReaChR”
Divya Sripathy
’19 USC Dornsife
Biological Sciences
PI: Peter Kuhn
“Understanding the Role of White Blood
Cell Interactions with
Circulating Tumor Cells”
Chaitra Subbarao
’20 USC Keck
Health Promotion & Disease Prevention
PI: Lindsey Schier
“Examining Visceroreceptive Sensitivities in
Sucralose-Preferring and Avoiding Rats”
Jackson Walker
’20 USC Dornsife
Neuroscience
PI: Scott Fraser
“Identifying Enhancers
in Cardiac Development”
Yimin Zhang
’18 USC Cinematic Arts
Animation
PI: Ray Stevens
“The Pancreatic Beta Cell Project”
The Film
Yue Zhu
’20 USC Dornsife
Biochemistry
PI: Julie Lang
“Harvest of CTCs from MBC Patients
Using Parsortix PC1 System”
Janine Zhu
’21 USC Dornsife
Environmental Science and Health
PI: Annie Wong-Beringer
“Fighting Bacterial Resistance:
The CRE Project”