Summer Scholars

The WISE RP Summer Scholars program is open to any WISE RP undergraduate student seeking to participate in research or internships across any college during the Spring/Summer term. Selected scholars receive up to $6,000 in funding and are expected to commit at least 200 hours over 10 weeks, including 1-2 hours of weekly professional development with the WISE RP. The funding provided offers financial support to help you live and work in Ann Arbor over the summer.

The WISE RP offers donor-supported scholarships annually to WISE RP students seeking to participate in research or internships for the Spring/Summer terms from any college. These scholarships are funded by the generous financial support of champions of the WISE RP. These champions are external donors, alumni, and friends of the WISE RP. Recipients have a research/internship commitment of at least 20 hours per week for 10 weeks. The scholarship offers financial support for students to work and live in Ann Arbor over the summer. Apply here to join us this summer!

2026 Summer Scholars

Gigi Abdelkader

College of Engineering

Major: Computer Engineering (transitioning to Electrical Engineering)

Gehad is a rising junior studying Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, with plans to transition into Electrical Engineering. This summer, she is working in the robotics lab at the Ford Robotics Building on North Campus under the guidance of Dr. Derrick Yeo. Her project focuses on developing assistive technology, specifically building a hand gripper that responds tomuscle signals. The system uses electromyography (EMG) sensors to detect changes in muscle activity and translate them into movement, allowing the device to open and close based on theuser’s intent. Her work involves daily collaboration in the lab to design, build, and test both the hardware and software components of the system, including signal acquisition and processing.This project aims to support individuals with limited hand control by providing a more intuitive and responsive assistive device, while giving her hands on experience in embedded systems, sensing, and human centered robotics.

Sarah Bergdolt

School of Nursing

Major: Nursing

Sarah is a rising junior conducting research in the DRB Lab at the University of Michigan School of Nursing under the mentorship of Dr. Jade Burns. The lab focuses on improving the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults, particularly young Black men, through community-engaged research. Sarah’s work contributes to ongoing studies exploring how digital tools, including social media, can improve health education, promote healthy behaviors, and reduce disparities in access to care among underserved populations. Through this experience, she is gaining experience with community-based participatory research methods while exploring how technology and healthcare can work together to address inequities in adolescent health outcomes.

Zandra Curley

College of LSA

Major: Biology and Earth & Environmental Sciences

Zandra is a rising senior pursuing a double major in Biology and Earth & Environmental Sciences. In addition to being part of the 2023-2024 WISE RP freshman cohort, she was a 2024 Summer Scholar and member of the Alumni Weekend Planning Committee the last two years. This summer, she is working on an independent research project in the TY James Mycology Lab to investigate the evolutionary potential of the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), which is responsible for the widespread outbreak of white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats across North America. Specifically, she hopes to understand how Pd may evolve increased tolerance to warmer environments, especially in the backdrop of rising global temperatures.

Josephine Idanawang

College of LSA

Major: Neuroscience

Josephine is a rising sophomore majoring in Neuroscience conducting research in the Shea Lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, under the mentorship of PhD candidate Brooke Smiley and principal investigator Dr. Lonnie Shea. Her project focuses on developing particle-based immunomodulatory strategies to protect transplanted neural stem cells (NSCs) from immune rejection in the context of spinal cord injury. NSC transplantation holds significant therapeutic promise for restoring function after injury, but immune-mediated destruction of donor cells remains one of the field's most persistent barriers to clinical translation. To address this, Josephine is working to engineer two complementary protective systems: FasL-modified microparticles designed to locally suppress activated T cells at the transplant site, and NSC membrane-coated nanoparticles that promote systemic immune tolerance by delivering donor-derived antigens to antigen-presenting cells to promote immune tolerance. Her responsibilities include fabricating and optimizing these particles by adjusting parameters like protein loading, size, surface charge, and material composition, followed by characterization using dynamic light scattering, flow cytometry, BCA protein assays, fluorescent binding assays, and transmission electron microscopy. Particles will then be evaluated through in vitro cell interaction studies and in vivo testing in mouse models of spinal cord injury. Ultimately, this work aims to close the gap between the demonstrated potential of NSC transplantation and its translation into effective, clinically applicable treatments for spinal cord injury.

Diya Kannappan

College of LSA

Major: Biochemistry

Diya Kannappan is a rising junior conducting research in the Athey Lab, housed in the Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, under the mentorship of Dr. Brian Athey. The Athey Lab focuses on advancing single-molecule sequencing methods to improve the accuracy and reliability of genomic analyses on complex regions of the human genome. While Diya’s previous work in the Athey Lab has focused primarily on building bioinformatic tools to quantify and improve the accuracy of single-molecule sequencing, this summer she will expand into wet-lab research by developing a new targeted DNA sequencing method using guide-RNA directed Cas9 nickase enzymes to support multiplexed single-molecule sequencing of complex genomic regions. Current targeted sequencing approaches rely on computational alignment to determine what genes sequenced DNA fragments originated from, which can introduce errors. Diya’s project aims to use Cas9 nickases to create custom DNA overhangs that can ligate with unique barcode adapters. Through this work, she will design wet-lab experiments, generate nanopore sequencing data, and analyze sequencing results using bioinformatics pipelines. This project will contribute to improved targeted sequencing methods while supporting her biochemistry honors thesis.

Vivien Li

College of Engineering

Major: Computer Science Engineering

Minor: Mathematics

Vivien is a rising sophomore studying algebraic geometry and singularity theory under the guidance of Professor Seungsu Lee in the Department of Mathematics. She is interested in the intersection between abstract mathematics and theoretical computer science. Algebraic geometry is a field that explores the structure and properties of polynomial equations and their solution sets using powerful tools from abstract algebra. By exploring algebraic geometry this summer, she hopes to build her mathematical maturity. Vivien will be learning about commutative ring theory, the connection between polynomial rings and geometric objects, projective geometry, how to resolve singularities of given algebraic varieties over complex numbers using Hironaka’s method, and about the resolution of singularities in positive characteristics. This summer, she hopes to develop her problem solving skills and work on her ability to reason at higher levels of abstraction in preparation for future research projects.

Maia Lintner

College of LSA

Major: Neuroscience

Previous Roles in WISE RP: Peer Mentor (2024-25) and Recruitment Team Member (2023-24, 2024-25)

Maia is a rising senior conducting research in the Olszewski Lab in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology under the guidance of Dr. Jintao Xu and principal investigator Dr. Michal Olszewski. Her work focuses on cryptococcal meningoencephalitis (CM), a serious fungal infection that primarily affects individuals with weakened immune systems, especially those with HIV, and causes nearly 200,000 deaths each year. Maia studies how a molecule called inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) influences the body's response to this infection in the brain. Although iNOS is traditionally recognized for its antimicrobial role in fighting infection, her research shows that its absence worsens disease outcomes by disrupting immune balance in the brain rather than increasing fungal growth. This imbalance is associated with early mortality, damage to the blood-brain barrier, and excessive inflammation driven by immune cells called neutrophils. Using mouse models of CM, Maia aims to better understand how iNOS regulates neuroinflammation and to identify neutrophils as potential therapeutic targets. Ultimately, she hopes to identify new treatment strategies that reduce harmful inflammation while preserving the body’s ability to effectively fight the infection.

Monica Quiros

College of Engineering

Major: Chemical Engineering

Monica Quiros is a rising junior majoring in Chemical Engineering and this summer will be conducting research under Joseph Potkay in the Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) Lab through Michigan Medicine and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare system. Theaim of the Potkay Lab is to develop artificial lung technologies where microfluidicand microsystem approaches enhance device performance compared to thecurrent state of the art, hollow fiber artificial lung designs. She is specifically working on the 3D Printed Microfluidic Artificial Lung Project which focuses on overcoming the limitations of traditional microfluidic fabrication by using high-resolution 3D printing to create artificial lungs using photopolymerizable PMDS resin.

Ashley Sutter

College of LSA

Major: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Ashley is a rising senior studying Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology through the College of LSA. During her time at Michigan, she has been in WISE RP as a first year and served as a Peer Mentor for the 2024-25 cohort. As she continues her journey with WISE RP this summer, she will work as a summer scholar in Ljungman Lab through the Rogel Cancer Center. Her main goal will be to study the effect of a targeted fok1-dCas9 cancer therapy, KLIPP, on ecDNA. This non-chromosomal DNA is a newly emerged obstacle in the cancer field, the small pieces of circular DNA make cancers more aggressive and more likely to resist treatment (Weiser et al., 2025). This summer Ashley’s project will be to target the 300+ copies of ecDNA in a lung cancer cell line, using KLIPP with specially designed guide RNA. This research could provide insights in how to make cancer therapies more effective by knocking out ecDNA populations using gene therapy, in addition to other common treatment strategies like chemotherapy.

Ishita Yadav

College of Engineering

Major: Biomedical Engineering

Ishita Yadav is a rising sophomore studying Biomedical Engineering. This summer, she is conducting research on ovarian follicle development and vascular signaling using the VASChip, a microfluidic platform utilized to model folliculogenesis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). She will be working on fabricating microfluidic devices to generate microgels with tunable surface properties to support VASChip co-culture studies, with the goal of better modeling interactions between vascular cells and surrounding tissue/cell types in a controlled in vitro system. By modifying the microgel surfaces to support cell attachment and growth factor sequestration, this project aims to better understand how scaffold design influences cell behavior. These engineered microgels will help create more controlled and customizable platforms for studying cell-material interactions.

Yunying Zhang

College of LSA

Major: Biochemistry

Minor: Data Science

Yunying Zhang is a rising Sophomore who was part of the WISE RP recruitment team in her first year. This summer, she will be conducting research using the quantum microscope at the Goodson Lab in the department of Chemistry under the mentorship of Ph.D. candidate Bishal Saha and the principal investigator Dr. Theodore Goodson III. Her project focuses on understanding small molecule interactions with DNA. This research is central to pharmacology and biomedical imaging, especially for the development of various chemotherapeutic drugs. DNA-binding drugs typically interact with DNA through intercalation or groove binding mechanisms and produce distinct effects to the cells upon binding. This project focuses on the use of quantum microscopy for clinical analysis of these drugs in vivo. By exploiting time–energy entangled photon pairs in the quantum microscope she aims to analyze the DNA-binding mode of these drugs and establish an efficient low intensity imaging modality that is safe and minimally invasive for live cell imaging.

2025 Summer Scholars

Danielle Becker

Danielle Becker

College of LSA

Major: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Danielle is a rising sophomore conducting research at the Spence Lab in the Department ofInternal Medicine at Michigan Medicine, under the mentorship of Ph.D. candidate Manqi Wuand the lab’s principal investigator, Dr. Jason Spence. Her project focuses on understanding thedevelopment and maturation of alveolar type II (AT2) cells using an induced pluripotent stemcell (iPSC) model. The goal of this research is to better understand the gene expression dynamicsand key transition points involved in AT2 cell differentiation. To achieve this, Danielle isemploying a variety of techniques, including quantitative PCR (qPCR) to assess gene expression,immunostaining to visualize protein markers at various stages of differentiation, and single-cellRNA sequencing to capture cellular heterogeneity and map lineage trajectories.

Jane Foreman

Jane Foreman

College of Engineering

Major: Aerospace Engineering

Minor: Mathematics

Jane Foreman is a rising sophomore majoring in Aerospace Engineering through the College of Engineering. This summer, she is conducting research in the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Joaquim R. R. A. Martins. Her work focuses on the development and refinement of Python-based MDO code used for aircraft design, in collaboration with the AIAA DBF team Mach. The project aims to improve performance prediction and streamline the design process through advanced optimization techniques. Throughout the experience, Jane will engage in coding, testing, and collaborative problem-solving, while strengthening her skills in computational methods, engineering analysis, and technical communication.

Hana Hasanovic

Hana Hasanovic

College of Engineering

Major: Aerospace Engineering

Hana Hasanovic is a rising Sophomore interning with Professor George Halow in the Department of Aerospace Engineering focused on Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and educational development. This work includes transforming an outdated lab into a modern MBSE teaching space, involving infrastructure planning and systems scoping. In addition, Hana is developing instructional materials for AERO 200, an introductory aerospace engineering course, and M-PREPARED, a PhD-level program on engineering ethics and leadership. The internship also includes collaborating with industry partners and faculty to scope and define ten MBSE-driven electromechanical projects that will be implemented in the AEROSP x88 course series during the 2025–26 academic year.

Julia Joseph

Julia Joseph

College of LSA

Majors: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Julia is conducting her research in the LSA Astronomy department under Dr. LiaCorrales and Dr. Jamila Taaki. She will be searching for transits from very smallEarth-like planets in stellar light curves obtained from the Transiting Exoplanet SurveySatellite (TESS). She will be applying new search algorithms developed by Dr. Taaki(Taaki et al. 2025) on TESS data which has not been analyzed. Additionally, herresearch will include examining improvements to the data analysis pipeline and vettingthe results of the search to search for false positives and false alarms from thealgorithm.

Maya Kama

Maya Kama

College of LSA

Major: Chemistry

Maya is a rising sophomore who was part of recruitment team in her first year in WISE RP and will be a peer mentor in her second year. This summer she is gaining research experience in Professor Melanie Sanford’s research group in the Department of Chemistry. The Sanford group researches C-H activation, organometallics, cross-coupling, and fluorination. Maya is working under the mentorship of Sabrina Reich, a PhD student at the Sanford group. Maya’s research project is based in C-H activation, which is the transformation of C-H bonds into functional groups of interest in order to synthesize desired organic molecules. In this category, her research will focus on the electrosynthesis of C-H picolinated aryl halides, specifically optimizing and isolating a scope involving these products. In addition, she is investigating the selectivity of arene versus benzylic products across varying sterics and electronics of pyridine nucleophiles.

Bhumi Kumar

Bhumi Kumar

College of Engineering

Major: Electrical Engineering

Bhumi is an incoming sophomore majoring in Electrical Engineering through the College of Engineering. This summer, she is conducting interdisciplinary research through the Center for Naval Research & Education under the guidance of Dr. Harish Ganesh and postdoctoral researcher Rodrigo Vilumbrales Garcia. The project focuses on investigating the effects of shear stress on the growth of drag-inducing biofilms to learn how to reduce hydrodynamic drag on ships and submarines. Bhumi’s work focuses on the electrical and software components of the lab setup, including working on sensor systems, developing control software using Python, and collecting data using tools to monitor and regulate the shear conditions. The role also involves supporting the construction of a growth facility that is capable of varying shear rates and contributes to collecting and analyzing the fluid mechanics data. This experience allows her to apply core electrical engineering skills in a real-world marine engineering context, while contributing to research that has important implications for energy efficiency and performance in naval technology.

Mad Lindsey

Mad Lindsey

College of Engineering

Major: Chemical Engineering

Mad is working as an Engineering and Business Operations Intern at Warmilu, a biotechnology company, under the guidance of Erin Donnelly and Grace Hsia Haberl. Warmilu is a non-electric warming technology company, specializing in manufacturing the InstaWarmer. Warmilus' overarching mission is to spread warmth to save infant lives. The InstaWarmer is a safe, reusable and durable heat pack that generates safely regulated warmth in seconds. The InstaWarmer especially benefits hospitals in low income areas that are only able to afford a minimal number of incubators. The overall goal of Mad’s summer internship is to gain hands-on engineering experience. This will be accomplished by Mad supporting production and manufacturing for the Warmilu heat packs and incubator blankets, developing and executing test methods and protocols to support production scale up, and assisting with the optimization and organization of the Warmilu heat pack production process and production space.

Alisha Malik

Alisha Malik

College of Engineering

Biomedical Engineering

Alisha is a sophomore conducting research in the Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) Lab, ledby Alvaro Rojas-Pena, M.D., through Michigan Medicine’s Department of Surgery. The ECLSLab focuses on advancing extracorporeal life support technologies to help treat patients facingsevere cardiac and respiratory failure. This summer, Alisha is contributing to two ongoingtranslational research projects aimed at advancing life-saving interventions for patients withrespiratory failure and diseases. The first project involves the development of an ArtificialPlacenta system designed to support lung development in premature newborns, particularlythose with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) isutilized to mimic placental function and allow the lungs to mature in a protected environment.The second project centers on the creation of a microfluidic artificial lung designed to closelyreplicate human capillary networks, enabling efficient gas exchange while minimizing clotting.Together, these efforts aim to improve the safety and effectiveness of ECLS technologies forclinical applications, ultimately enhancing the quality of life of patients.

Marika Ruppart

Marika Ruppart

School of Kinesiology

Major: Movement Science

Marika is a rising senior conducting research on individuals with lower limb amputations through the Rehabilitation Biomechanics Laboratory, under the guidance of PhD student Kristin Perrin. Transfemoral amputees (TFAs) have high fall risks, but the exact cause is still unknown. The overall goal of this project is to determine if the type and design of prosthetic sockets used by TFAs affects their balance recovery to lateral perturbations. Physiological data including hip muscle strength, quickness, and proprioception, is compared to their step response to lateral perturbations, including response time and type of step. Comparing these metrics will determine possible correlations of prosthetic sockets on hip muscle strength, quickness, and balance. Clinical implications could provide insight to prosthetists for safer socket designs to help reduce fall risk.

Paige Schuiling

Paige Schuiling

College of LSA

Major: Earth and Environmental Sciences

Paige is a rising sophomore engaging in two projects this summer. First, she is interningat the Huron River Watershed Council doing aquatic field work and environmentaleducation with local youth. Projects include green infrastructure work, surveying culvertswithin the Mill Creekshed to determine if they are eligible for an ecologically-friendlyreplacement, monitoring freshwater mussels, and taking water quality measurementswithin the watershed. Secondly, she is conducting research at the Julia Cole Climate Labunder the mentorship of Dr. Kelsey Dyez, PhD. The Cole Climate Lab assesses isotopesfrom corals in various corners of the world as proxies to construct a detailed record oftemperature and precipitation levels in these areas and analyze how those values havechanged over time. These data provide insights into the varying effects of climate changein different regions of the world.

Keely Weber

Keely Weber

College of LSA

Majors: Biochemistry and Spanish

Keely is a rising senior conducting research within the Chemistry department, in the group of Dr. Nicolai Lehnert under the guidance of Ph.D. candidate Daniel Castella. She is working on synthesizing biomimetic model complexes in order to better understand intermediates of the enzyme Cytochrome P450 Nitric Oxide Reductase (CytP450nor), the heme-containing enzyme responsible for converting nitric oxide to nitrous oxide in the fungal denitrification pathway in the nitrogen cycle. Specifically, Keely is making synthetic porphyrin complexes with hydrogen bond donors incorporated into the second coordination sphere, in order to better model hydrogen bonding interactions present in the native protein. Ultimately, the aim of this project is to synthesize and characterize these complexes using spectroscopic techniques such as resonance Raman, Mößbauer, and nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopies. This work will further elucidate the mechanism of CytP450nor through better understanding of the electronic structure of key reactive intermediates, which is of particular significance due to the large contribution to climate change that increased fungal N2O production represents.

Jennifer Weje

Jennifer Weje

College of LSA

Major: Biology, Health, and Society

Jennifer is conducting research in the Department of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at theUniversity of Michigan Hospital under the guidance of Dr. Linda Nyquist and the Nyquist Lab.The research focuses on analyzing and interpreting the results of PREVENTABLE, a pragmaticstudy that focuses on the effects of statins, a drug typically used for lowering cholesterol, as apreventive measure for dementia, disability, or heart disease in older adults. The effects oftaking statins for older adults without heart disease are not fully understood, but the Nyquist Labaims to use experimental results obtained from the PREVENTABLE Network, a group ofVeterans Administration (VA) medical centers across the country, to determine the possibilitiesof statins to lower the possibility of these occurrences and promote healthy living for olderpopulations. This summer, Jennifer will be working with Dr. Nyquist to gain experience in dataand experimental analysis and obtain knowledge in participant recruitment methods. In additionto this, Jennifer with be working with the Nyquist Lab to study methods from The Hospital ElderLife Program (HELP) at Michigan Medicine, which is a program used to assist elderly patients inregaining independence in their Activities of Daily Living (ADL) during their hospital stay.Jennifer will work alongside the HELP program to promote cognitive and physical activity withinthe elderly patient population at the hospital while also raising awareness for the issue ofinactivity during hospital stays.

Romy Wilson

Romy Wilson

College of LSA

Major: Chemistry

This summer Romy’s research topic will focus on the trigeminal sensory innervation in the salivary glands, and their effect on salivary composition and pH in mice with support from the Emrick Lab in the School of Dentistry. With the continued support of a graduate student, she will be manipulating sensory neurons in the glands to determine what control they have over saliva composition. She will be using chemogenetic and optogenetic pathways to induce certain effects on relevant sensory neuron structures, specifically Trpv1 receptors, which are potentiated by protons. Based on preliminary data, we predict that removing the presence of Trpv1 receptors, whether genetically or through ablating Trpv1+ salivary neurons, will cause dysregulated saliva as measured by pH. The goal of this research is to better understand sensory control of the glands and how we could potentially modulate saliva.

2024 Summer Scholars

Shadan Alrawi

Shadan Alrawi

College of LSA

Majors: Biochemistry and Philosophy

Minor: Physics

My summer research project will be taking place in the University of Michigan - Life Sciences Institute under the supervision of Dr. Peng Li and Dr. Wenjing Wang. This research will involve the collaboration of the two labs to study and understand respiration patterns and the physiological mechanisms underlying human perception of pain. To study the relationship between breathing patterns and pain alleviation, this project will focus on pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the NTS regions, which are known for their role in endorphinergic endogenous analgesia as well as respiratory regulation. The goal of this research is to help understand anesthetics to develop better tools in the future such as those used in surgeries and elsewhere.

Poorani Arunchunaikani

Poorani Arunchunaikani

College of Engineering

Major: Computer Engineering

Poorani is a rising sophomore conducting research in the comp.social lab through the College of Engineering at the Computer Science department. She will be working under the guidance of PhD student, Joshua Ashkinaze. This research focuses on how AI and chatbots could shape the social judgements of human societies. This project aims to uncover the extent to which chatbots such as ChatGPT will shift human social norms. This project will involve both reading and synthesizing human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and psychology literature and gaining experience designing human subjects experiments to empirically test research questions.

Zandra Curley

Zandra Curley

College of LSA

Major: Earth and Environmental Sciences

Zandra is an incoming sophomore majoring in Earth and Environmental Sciences through the college of LSA. This summer, she is doing an internship with the Bird Center of Michigan to rehabilitate injured wild birds and educate the public about them. Native Michigan songbirds and waterfowl are often found by the public when they are orphaned or injured by cats, cars, and other hazards, and at the Bird Center they are given specific care and treatments so that they can eventually be re-introduced to the wild. Through this internship during the busy summer months, Zandra will be working with the Bird Center and other interns to take in and care for these birds.

Aditri Gokul

Aditri Gokul

College of LSA

Major: Neuroscience

Aditri is a rising junior conducting research at the Dr. Daniel Wahl Laboratory in the department of Radiation Oncology at Michigan Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Sravya Palavalasa MBBS, PhD. The Wahl Lab focuses on studying the relationships between abnormal metabolic pathways and radiation therapy resistance in glioblastoma (the most common and aggressive type of brain cancer) and other brain tumors. Research shows that there is rapid repair of damaged DNA in radiation induced glioblastoma (GBM) cells and hence resistance to radiation treatment therapy. Dr. Palavalasa’s work so far has revealed that the GBM tumor microenvironment consists of various cell types and factors creating spatial heterogeneity in the speed of DNA damage repair, and regions consisting of rapid DNA repair were enriched with microglia (like a type of macrophage in the central nervous system). It was hypothesized that these microglia assist with DNA damage repair in a contact-independent manner, particularly from the metabolites they secrete which include N-acetyl glutamate (NAG) and N-acetyl aspartate (NAA). This summer, Aditri will be conducting experiments to generate and process data that depicts how NAG and NAA aid DNA damage repair and contribute to the resistance of radiation treatment in GBM.

Jessica Kaczor

Jessica Kaczor

College of LSA and College of Engineering

Majors: Biochemistry and Materials Science & Engineering

Jessica is a rising junior conducting research in the Peter Ma Lab under the supervision of Dr. Kemao Xiu. This research focuses on the creation and modification of an ideal cationic polymeric gene vector through various functionalization techniques. These polymers are vehicles to deliver genes to host cells, which has been a limiting factor in successful gene delivery and therapy. Specifically, polymeric gene vectors have advantages such as low biological concerns, ease of chemical modifications, versatility in various applications, and possibility of industrial production. This makes polymeric gene vectors a promising candidate in both research and commercialized gene delivery applications. This summer, Jessica will primarily be working on the synthesis, characterization of the structure, and overall efficiency of the polymer. In addition, Jessica will be assisting in the biological testing of the polymer to test transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity levels through cell studies.

Mad Lindsey

Mad Lindsey

College of Engineering

Major: Chemical Engineering

Mad is performing research this summer at the Goldsmith Lab through the Chemical Engineering department in sustainability under the guidance of Dr. Byran Goldsmith. Mad will also work closely with Ph.D. Student Dean Sweeney and Postdoctoral Researcher Bolton Tran. The Goldsmith Lab’s overarching research goals are to use first-principles computational modeling and data science tools to understand and design catalysts and materials for sustainable chemical conversion, pollution reduction, and energy generation/storage. The overall goal of Mad’s summer research project involves reacting carbon dioxide from air and nitrate from water using renewable energy as electrocatalysis to produce urea, a fertilizer for plants. This process will hypothetically clean water and air while producing a renewable fertilizer. Mad will be contributing to this goal by researching the correlation between acid properties and electrosorption. Specifically, researching weak acid properties correlation with surface absorption and how C-N anions absorb on catalyst surface. This research will be performed by tabulating a master database of properties and DFT results of weak acids. Using this information they will hope to establish a trend/correlation of the acid data.

Harika Lingamarla

Harika Lingamarla

Harika is a rising junior conducting research in Dr. Sunitha Nagrath’s lab in the Department of Chemical Engineering. She is mentored by Ph.D. candidate Abha Kumari. Harika’s research is in cancer diagnosis using microfluidic technology. Specifically, she is studying extracellular vesicles (EVs) originating from meningioma tumor cells in the brain. EVs can be isolated from blood and may contain RNA, DNA, and proteins from the original tumor. Over the summer, Harika will be working on refining the protocol for isolating EVs from patient plasma samples using a microfluidic chip. She will also be extracting protein and RNA from EVs captured on the device and conducting proteomic and RNA sequence analysis of the same. This technology has the potential to identify tumor characteristics and monitor the disease state in more detail than an MRI or CT scale while being significantly less invasive than a tumor tissue biopsy.

Maia Lintner

Maia Lintner

College of LSA

Major: Neuroscience (Minor: French/Francophone Studies)

WISE RP Involvement: Recruitment Team (2024), Peer Mentor (2024-25)

Maia is conducting research under the guidance of Michal Olszewski in Michigan Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Her research is related to Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neo), an environmental fungal pathogen that results in severe infections in immunocompromised individuals. Although an immune response is needed for clearance of C. neo, this response often worsens neurological symptoms and mortality. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a population of T cells that appear to suppress the harmful immune response to C. neo and express chemokine receptor-8 (CCR8). Maia’s project will explore the degree to which neutralizing CCR8 reduces Tregs and increases inflammation in mouse brains with cryptococcal meningoencephalitis (CM). She will analyze the mortality and pathogenesis of mouse models after C. neo infection. She will also visualize the localization of CCR8 and Tregs in infected mouse brains via flow cytometry, immunofluorescence staining, and microscopy. This data could help determine which chemokine receptors recruit Tregs to the brain in addition to CCR8 and if mechanisms enhancing Treg migration to the brain could be therapeutic in CM patients.

Grace Lombardo

Grace Lombardo

College of LSA

Major: Biochemistry

Minor: French and Francophone Studies
Rising Junior

WISE RP Summer Scholar 2023, WISE RP Study Group Leader Winter 2024

Grace is conducting research in the Department of Pathology of Michigan Medicine under the mentorship of Research Assistant Professor Dr. Wendy Fonseca. The laboratory focuses on the immunologic mechanisms involved in the development of allergic airway disease and respiratory virus infections. Animal models of pulmonary disease are utilized to investigate mechanistic questions and also perform pre-clinical assessments of pharmacologic targets. These models employ a fungal allergen Alternaria alternata (AA) extract implicated in severe asthma in humans that elicits a type 2 immune response. Previous projects in the lab have demonstrated that early-life RSV (EL-RSV) infection modifies the development of the immune response in neonates, potentially leading to exacerbated asthmatic responses later in life. Proper development of the immune system is important so that it reacts appropriately to stimuli. Dr. Fonseca and Grace’s aim for this summer is to define the role of the Stem cell factor SCF-C-kit signaling in innate immune cell type 2 activation during chronic allergic lung diseases using animal and cell culture models. They will analyze these mechanisms by performing in vitro and in vivo models and different molecular and cellular techniques such as qPCR, flow cytometry, ELISA, confocal microscopy, and histological analysis, among other techniques.

Monica Nicovic

Monica Nicovic

Major: Biomedical Engineering

Monica’s research this summer is with the Neuromuscular Lab (Section of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery) under the guidance of a PhD student, Yucheng (Jacky) Tian, as well as the lab PI, Dr. Stephen Kemp. Her research will focus on a sensorimotor interface for improved neuroprosthetic control called Composite-Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Interface (C-RPNI). C-RPNI is a composite surgical construct that allows for both precise motor control with a muscle graft and sensory feedback with a dermal graft. In motor tasks without sensory feedback, neuroprosthetics users feel that the devices are artificial or unnatural when they interact with the environment, which leads to poor device embodiment and high abandonment rate. These C-RPNIs also eliminate neuromas and the intense phantom limb pain that is caused through amputation. The project Monica will specifically be working on is validating that the C-RPNI construct facilitates viable sensorimotor signaling in a live rat model. Monica will record gait data of a rat with the C-RPNI surgery walking on the treadmill and apply a neural network to analyze the joint angles. Monica will show that this joint angle data and the motor signals will be aligned to study the effectiveness of the C-RPNI construct to improve motor responses which are guided by sensory feedback through electrical stimulation. This project will provide important preclinical evidence that demonstrates that the C-RPNI development is a promising approach to improve neuroprosthetic control.

Samantha Paris

Samantha Paris

Samantha was a member of the 2023-2024 WISE RP Cohort, and is currently studying Biomedical Engineering on a Pre-Medical Track.

This summer, Samantha Paris, a key member of the Spence Lab in the Michigan Medicine Department of Internal Medicine, is conducting research under the mentorship of Dr. Charlie Childs, PhD, and the lab’s principal investigator, Dr. Jason Spence. Her project focuses on developing Human Intestinal Organoids (HIOs) to create comprehensive, biologically accurate 3D models of the human intestine for pharmaceutical drug testing, building on foundational methods developed by Dr. Spence. Over the next few months, Samantha will determine the optimal size of organoids for practical imaging and analysis, using embryoid bodies (EBs) to refine staining protocols for various HIO types and establish standardized operating procedures. Additionally, she will create a time course for EREG/EGF HIO development, identifying ideal growth conditions and organoid sizes for drug permeation studies using the methods she developed earlier in her research. This project will provide crucial clinical data to guide her fall project, where she will be assisting in developing organoids that are both replicable in size and genetic makeup, enabling the study of intestinal disease composition and development in a clinically safe setting.

Amelia Rohim

Amelia Rohim

College of LSA

Major: Biology, Health, and Society

Amelia is a rising sophomore conducting research at the School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology under the guidance of Dr. Alexander Rickard. Throughout her freshman year, Amelia researched the optimal environments in which commensal oral bacteria perform and the resulting effects on their behavior. This research has provided her with understanding into the potential interactions among different species of commensal oral bacteria, including when and how they occur. Amelia is furthering her research by focusing on understanding the mechanisms and dynamics of intra-species and inter-species aggregation among oral bacteria. Her project includes collecting data regarding these interactions through image analysis and through novel microplate designs. Better understanding the behavior of commensal oral bacteria may provide insight into how biofilms form on tooth surfaces in the human oral cavity. Additionally, understanding these interactions may be important to determining solutions to prevent tooth decay.

Marisa Rose

Marisa Rose

College of LSA

Major: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Marisa is conducting her summer research in the Castro/Lowenstein Lab in the Department of Neurosurgery at Michigan Medicine. She will work under Dr. Maria Luisa Varela PhD to study the collagen receptor LAIR-1 in mouse models of High Grade Glioma Multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. Since LAIR-1 has been detected in tumor cells, interacting with the extracellular matrix of gliomas, this project aims to describe the mechanism in which the receptor is involved in tumor progression in hopes of developing a gene therapy and/or antibody-based therapy to target LAIR-1 and lead to new treatments for GBM.

Aida Ruan

Aida Ruan

Major: Electrical Engineering

Aida is researching under Lisa Li of the EECS Department in the controls area. The topic focuses on muscle-type limb control and its differences to torque-motor-type limb control. A model of the human muscle arm will be created and iterated on with a control method, then its efficiency will be measured compared to a mechanical robotic arm. The creation of the arm muscle model will involve an exploration in biomechanics, including the contraction of muscles generating force and motor-neuron feedback. Through this comparative research approach, valuable insights can be gained into the principles governing limb control in living organisms.

Eva Skarbinski

Eva Skarbinski

Major: Microbiology (college of LSA)

Eva is conducting her research at the School of Public Health under the guidance of Dr. Alex Rickard. She will be studying coaggregation between cyanobacteria and other taxonomically diverse freshwater bacteria. Coaggregation is the specific recognition and adhesion of two or more genetically distinct bacteria to one another and has been found to occur in dental plaque bacteria, bathroom biofilms, and more. Her project specifically focuses on coaggregation between cyanobacteria, commonly referred to as “blue-green algae”, as these interactions have not been studied yet and could impact our understanding of freshwater biofilm formation. Eva’s research aims to determine whether cyanobacteria generally tend to coaggregate, and if so to identify specific organisms that exhibit the strongest coaggregation. This research could impact the way scientists view and combat cyanobacteria outbreaks in freshwater.

2023 Summer Scholars

Nandini Arya

Nandini Arya

College of LSA

Majors: Biochemistry, Biophysics, Chemical Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies

Nandini’s summer research is in the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences under the guidance of Dr. Pam Wong. Her research involves studying nanoparticle-based vaccine adjuvants to enhance the protective effect of vaccines towards viral pathogens. Specifically, she will be working with a nanoemulsion vaccine adjuvant that can work in conjunction with protein-based or mRNA-based antigens for more effective delivery of SARS-CoV2 vaccines to stimulate more effective immune responses. The goal of her research is to promote broad, durable, and potent immunity in both young and elderly populations. Over the summer, she will be studying mRNA antigen constructs and their formulation with the lab’s nanoemulsion adjuvant. She will be looking at the in vitro behavior of transfecting mRNA and how the nanoemulsion adjuvant can impact it, and ideally expanding this to in vivo studies as well. She will be analyzing the induced immune responses by performing ELISAs, microneutralization assays, and T cell assays among other techniques, with samples collected from mouse models.

Keira Bunce

Keira Bunce

College of LSA

Major: Biology

Keira will research under the Weisman lab and work closely with Ph.D. candidate Lily Hahn to investigate the regulation of motor protein attachment to cargo. Motor proteins are like tiny machines that transport organelles, proteins, and other “cargo” within a cell. To maintain a healthy cell, it is imperative that the motor proteins attach to the correct cargo and then deliver it to its precise destination at the right time. However, it is unknown exactly how the motor proteins are regulated to perform these processes. Keira’s project will explore this question by concentrating on the transport of vacuoles (the cargo) during yeast cell division. When yeast cells divide, vacuoles (a cell organelle) are moved from the “mother” to the “daughter” cell by motor proteins. The health of the daughter cell is dependent on the completion of this process. Within this project, Keira will make mutations on the motor protein, investigate how the mutations affect live yeast cells, and study the cells under a microscope. From these procedures, she can then quantify the degree that the mutated motor proteins affect the completion of vacuole transport in yeast cells.

Annika Fuhrer

Annika Fuhrer

College of Engineering

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Annika is a mechanical engineering intern at the Space Physics Research Lab (SPRL) at the University of Michigan. They are working closely with senior mechanical engineers on various projects including vibration and shock testing. SPRL owns multiple thermal and vacuum chambers as well as vibration tables to perform various tests on space and research equipment. This allows components such as satellites and electronics to be verified for the conditions experienced during launch or orbit. This summer Annika will be researching shock testing and the equipment required to meet various aerospace and defense shock testing standards. They will also evaluate the options for SPRL to implement shock testing in its lab, either purchasing equipment directly or designing and building its own shock testing

Angelina Hamblin

Angelina Hamblin

LSA - School of Kinesiology

Major: Movement Science

Angelina is conducting research this summer in Dr. Mark Russell’s Lab through the Michigan Medicine Frankel Cardiovascular Center’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program (F-CVC SURF). Angelina’s work in Dr. Russell’s laboratory will involve studying mechanisms of cardiac myofibril assembly, alignment and structural support, topics central to the pathophysiology of, and development of new therapies for, heart failure, cardiomyopathy and muscular dystrophy. Angelina will also be focusing on the development of novel zebrafish models of cardiomyopathy and the evaluation of flow-mediated growth signals in the fetal heart as part of her summer research. Dr. Russell’s laboratory has demonstrated that obscurin signals the cell to initiate the myogenic program in response to extracellular signals. As the cell begins to differentiate, obscurin scaffolds the assembly of new myofibrils and for the structural integrity of existing myofibrils.

Jessica Kaczor

Jessica Kaczor

College of LSA

Major: Biochemistry and Materials Science & Engineering

Jessica is conducting research this summer under the supervision of Dr. Kemao Xiu in the Peter Ma Lab. This research primarily focuses on the creation and modification of an ideal cationic polymeric gene vector. The applications of this vector have shown good transfection ability in vitro, ease of chemical modification, and possibility of commercial manufacture, which prove to be useful in gene therapy. In the current field, there is not a single polymeric gene vector that is able to assist in the transfer of genes into cells effectively. This project aims to improve the transfection ability and decrease the cytotoxicity of the vector. Eventually, the applications of the properly modified polymer could be a promising candidate for gene therapy applications.

Grace Lombardo

Grace Lombardo

College of LSA

Major: Biochemistry

Grace is conducting research in the Lukacs Laboratory in the Department of Pathology of Michigan Medicine under the leadership of Dr. Nicholas W. Lukacs and the mentorship of Research Assistant Professor Dr. Wendy Fonseca Aguilar. The lab focuses on the immunologic mechanisms involved in the development of asthma and respiratory virus infections. Grace’s previous project with Dr. Fonseca focused on the role of macrophages in the connection between early-life respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection and asthma development later in life. Based on the cytokine profiles of bone marrow derived macrophages, it was suggested that macrophages polarize to the M2 phenotype following early-life RSV infection which has been associated with asthma development in previous literature. This summer, Grace will use molecular biology techniques to generate data from Dr. Fonseca’s current experiments in order to provide insights into the immunological mechanisms involved in asthma development.

Natasha Mehta

Natasha Mehta

College of Engineering

Major: Chemical Engineering

Minors: Biochemistry and Multidisciplinary Design

Natasha is a rising junior conducting research at the Kotov Lab in the department of Chemical Engineering under the guidance of PhD candidate Kody Whisnant. Her research mainly focuses on hedgehog particles (HPs), micron-scale spherical particles with metal oxide spikes. Due to their structure, HPs do not follow the typical pattern of solubility and can therefore be applied to processes involving harmful chemicals, originally required to dissolve a substance of interest.
Natasha’s projects center around the application of graph theory, in conjunction with the StructuralGT python package, to HPs. Building off of the original code, Natasha is working to aid in the development of computer-based analysis of hedgehog particles in order to better understand their structure as a network.

Grace Thompson

Grace Thompson

College of LSA

Majors: PitE & Earth and Environmental Sciences

Grace is a rising junior in the College of LSA double majoring in Program in the Environment & Earth and Environmental Sciences, focusing her studies on aquatic chemistry and water quality science. She was a peer mentor in WISE RP this past school year and this will be her second summer participating in the Summer Scholars Program! They will be working under the supervision of Austin Crane and Dr. Allen Burton in the Burton Ecotoxicology Lab through the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the School for Environment and Sustainability. The primary objectives of the lab’s research is to better characterize which stressors are ecologically significant, understand their impacts on different aquatic organisms, and improve information accuracy for environmental management and restoration efforts. She will be working on a proof-of-concept project for the in situ Toxicity Identification Evaluation (iTIE) Technology. This is a biological-chemical fractionation system that identifies causes of toxicity by separating chemical classes of compounds frequently linked to adverse biological effects (i.e. organics, metals, ammonia). This environmentally realistic assessment improves traditional lab methods, allowing for more cost-effective monitoring and remediation decisions.

Jennifer Wang

Jennifer Wang

College of Engineering

Majors: Electrical Engineering

Minor: Economics

Jennifer is conducting research in Dr. Joseph Potkay’s lab in the Department of Surgery under PhD candidate Andrew Zhang. The project focuses on the development of human-scale microfluidic artificial lungs, which oxygenate and remove carbon dioxide from blood while overcoming biocompatibility issues faced by current artificial lungs. The microfluidic artificial lungs consist of alternating layers of polydimethylsiloxane with blood and gas channels engraved by a CO2 laser engraver. The goal of this research is to create a device to support patients waiting for a lung transplant or recovering from chronic lung disease. This summer, Jennifer will design, manufacture, and integrate electronics for the roll-to-roll manufacturing system.

Sabrina Wong

Sabrina Wong

College of Engineering

Major: Chemical Engineering

Sabrina is conducting research this summer with the Li+ Research Group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering under the guidance of Dr. Yiyang Li. Her research is on lithium-ion batteries, which are a promising energy storage technology due to their high energy density. Conventional commercial lithium-ion battery cathodes are composed of polycrystalline LiMeO2 battery particles, where Me is a combination of Ni, Mn, and Co. These cathodes are referred to as NMC. The specific focus of her research project this summer is single-crystal NMC, which is a potential alternative battery material to polycrystalline NMC. The aim of her research this summer is to refine a process for synthesizing single-crystal NMC battery particles that meet certain specifications in terms of their chemical composition, morphology, and size. Once this goal is achieved, she will then manufacture coin cells out of the synthesized battery particles in order to study their electrochemical performance.
s. It is important to establish a process for consistently producing single-crystal NMC that meet certain specifications as they are not as readily available for purchase as polycrystalline NMC is. The synthesized single-crystal NMC can be used in future research in more precise fundamental studies as well as for comparison with their polycrystalline counterpart to better understand the mechanisms behind both types of battery particles.

Summer Scholars 2022

Rachel Hendrian

Major: Biochemistry

Project Description: Rachel is pursuing research in the Department of Chemistry under the leadership of Dr. TheodoreGoodson III and the mentorship of Ph.D. candidate Lloyd Fisher. Her research involves the studying ofastrocytes, non-neuronal cells that play a crucial role for regulation of the Central Nervous System. They are very sensitive to changes in their environment, responding through ion and water fluxes across the cell membrane. Rachel’s project is focused on the calcium ion release from astrocytes through the stimulation of a nanosecond laser, observed through the use of a fluorescent dye, Fluo-4, that binds to the calcium ion within the cell. Different wavelengths and powers will be used to observe their effects and study any correlation between them and the ion fluxes. In addition to the laser’s effects on the astrocytes, Rachel’s project also is focused on the specific fluorescent dye being utilized to visualize the calcium ions to best understand its effects on the cell and how its properties affect the results observed. This includes collecting emission, absorption, excitation spectra, and more.

Dre Hubers

Major: Biochemistry and Spanish

Project Description: Dre’s summer research is in the Internal Medicine department under the leadership of Scott Soleimanpour. This lab focuses on the role of the mitochondrial life cycle in diabetes and beta cell biology, the genetic causes of pancreatic beta cell failure, and the molecular function of Clec16a, the diabetes susceptibility gene, with the overarching goal of understanding how these factors can lead to diabetes pathogenesis. Over the summer, Dre will focus primarily on understanding how mitochondrial health is important in islet health, specifically in insulin-producing beta cells. She will use cellular and molecular analyses to understand mechanisms that are critical for the function of mitochondria in the islets. In the lab, she will study genetically modified mice and mouse models using tissue histology by advanced microscopy.

Allyson May

Major: Biochemistry

Project Description: Allyson is conducting research this summer in the Department of Pharmacology’s Anand Lab under Dr. Jessica Anand. The Anand lab studies the pharmacology of opioid drugs, and Allyson’s summer project focuses on opioid receptors. Her work involves running competitive binding assays to compare how different drugs bind to these various receptors. The data she collects can eventually be used to develop treatment for opioid abuse, as well as to develop safer alternatives to these drugs.

Taylor McCollin

Major: Biology Health and Society

Project Description: Taylor is conducting research this summer in the Orthopedic Rehabilitation & Biomechanics Lab in the School of Kinesiology, under the guidance of Dr. Riann Palmieri-Smith and post-doctoral fellow Dr. Alexa Johnson. This summer, she will be researching health disparities within orthopedics and sports medicine, focusing on how social determinants of health can affect patients with an ACL injury. Previous literature has compared social determinants of health- such as insurance, employment, education level, race, ethnicity, income, and socioeconomic status- against a multitude of outcomes, like time to treatment and post-operative complications. Varying determinants correlate to longer delays to surgery and fewer postoperative physical therapy visits. Additionally, these patients have higher likelihood of sustaining concomitant injuries that may be irreparable due to the delayed access to orthopedic treatment. However, most published articles revolve around different injuries, such as meniscal tears, shoulder disorders, and rotator cuff tears. The purpose of Taylor’s research project is to investigate the impact of social determinants of health specifically for ACL injury and post-ACL reconstruction (ACLR) recovery process.

Aida Ruan

Major: Electrical Engineering

Project Description: Aida is conducting research for Professor Forrest’s Optoelectronic Components and Materials Group under graduate student Xinjing Huang. The project centers on organic photovoltaic cells or OPVs, specifically their fabrication and degradation. OPVs have potential to become a promising renewable energy technology due to their low cost and semi-transparency, making them viable for use on windows. Over the summer, several ternary OPVs will be fabricated and encapsulated. After characterization of initial performances, the OPV devices will be placed under high intensity illumination for accelerated aging to study their degradation.

Grace Thompson

Major: Environmental Science

Project Description: Grace is working this summer with PhD candidate Aarti Mathur at the Linic Lab through the department of Chemical Engineering, and will be evaluating numerous catalyticmaterials and testing parameters (deposition time, solution concentration, and deposition potential) with the intent of maximizing nanoparticle stability in solar water splitting applications. Results from this project will help create more efficient and affordable mean sof producing and storing hydrogen fuel, alleviate effects of climate change, and increase national energy security.Photovoltaic cells, commonly found in solar panels, use solar energy to photocatalytically decompose water into hydrogen fuel andoxygen, as well as store energy that can be used in fuel cells to provide grid-scale power without releasing pollutants. However, there arecurrently no commercially practicable methods of doing so due to low efficiencies and poor stability.

Morgan Vanderleest

Major: Computer Science Engineering

Project Description: Morgan VanderLeest is a rising third year student studying Computer Science at the College of Engineering with a minor in Political Science. During their time with WISE RP, they have been a first-year mentee and a second-year peer mentor. This summer they are interning at the Institute of World Politics (IWP), where they will be assisting IWP faculty in projects pertaining to cybersecurity and cyber intelligence.

Jennifer Weje

Major: Biology, Health, & Society

Project Description: Jennifer is conducting research in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology under the guidance of Dr. Amy Chang, here at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on understanding the response of cells when exposed to stress. This lab especially utilizes and cultivates yeast cells such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae to examine the adaptive response to certain stressors such as protein misfolding in the endoplasmic reticulum, leading to the mitochondria undergo a remodeling process. Through examination of the organellar functions of yeast and other cellular organisms, they are able to observe the protein assembling,mitochondrial remodeling, modulating mitochondrial activity, and its critical transcriptional and translational necessary to remodel mitochondrial components. Understanding these cellular processes is vital to understanding human health, as a wide range of diseases are associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress and mitochondrial dysfunction.This summer Jennifer will be working with Dr. Amy Chang to gain experience in cultivating yeast, making media pour plates, constructing solutions, lysing yeast, and analyzing yeast proteins by Western blot.

2021 Summer Scholars

Denise Schlautman

Major: Chemical Engineering

Project Description: Denise’s summer research through the Shtein Lab focuses on drug delivery and drug solubility. The project aims to improve drug solubility in biological systems by building medicinalmolecules at the micro and nano level, thus maximizing the surface area to volume ratio. Themedicine is deposited onto various surfaces (glass, polymer) via organic vapor jet printing,creating a thin film of crystalline medicine less than a micrometer thick. This summer, Denise isstudying the dissolution behavior of small medicinal compounds printed on a biodegradable, nontoxic film made from pullulan. She will use analysis techniques to determine thethermophysical and dissolution characterization of small medicinal molecules in order todetermine the proper conditions for the printing process and comparison to the original powderform of the medicine.

Jenny Park

Major: Biochemistry

Project Description: Jenny is conducting research this summer at the Kamcev Lab in the Department of Chemical Engineering, under the guidance of Dr. Jovan Kamcev and Ph.D. candidate José Díaz. Her research project focuses on proton and metal ion transport in highly charged, low-swelling polymer membranes. Understanding membrane properties such as ion transport and selectivity is essential in the advancement of water treatment and energy generation or storage technology for sustainable applications. Jenny will be specifically focusing on proton (H+) transport these membranes, as it has been found that proton mobility in the membrane outperforms that of other ions, but this phenomenon has not been exploited yet. This summer, she will be working with José Díaz to synthesize various charged membranes and characterize their equilibrium, transport, and selectivity properties using electrochemical methods.

Julia Li

Andra Campbell

Major: Julia Li

Project Description: Prior work has shown that patients with autoimmune conditions face many challenges when dealing with the acute effects of a COVID-19 diagnosis, and in living in a pandemic environment (even when they do not themselves have COVID-19). However, little work has been done to evaluate the long-term effects of COVID-19 in this population, including both “long-COVID” symptoms as have been described in other populations, and specific long-term effects on such patients’ autoimmune disease, their health in general, and their interactions with their medical providers. A cohort of UM Rheumatology patients who previously contracted COVID-19 has been developed. Julia will review electronic medical records of patients in this cohort and perform qualitative analysis to help understand a) the circumstances of each patient’s COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment, b) how their health has changed due to COVID, c) the relationship between their COVID-19 diagnosis, their overall health, and their autoimmune diagnosis and treatment.

Anya Young

Major: Biochemistry

Project Description: Anya is pursuing summer research in the department of Medicinal Chemistry under the leadership of Dr. George Garcia and graduate student Garrett Dow. One ofthe main interests of the Garcia Lab is the discovery of potential antibiotics to combat Shigellaflexneri: a pathogen that infects the gastrointestinal tract, and affects about 165 million peoplearound the world each year. Infection by Shigella can be lethal if it is not treated, which makesthe disease a growing concern as antibiotic resistance in Shigella flexneri continues to rise. Anya’s project involves the protein VirF—a promising target for novel antibiotics due to its keyrole as a transcriptional activator of the genes that cause virulence in Shigella. Using molecularbiology techniques, she will be investigating the mechanism by which VirF dimerizes, whichwill provide a better understanding of how the protein activates transcription of virulence genes in Shigella.

2020 Summer Scholars

Andra Campbell

Major: Biochemistry

Project Description: Andra’s summer research is in the pharmacology department in Dr. John Traynor’s lab. One of her lab’s main research focus is the discovery of addiction treatment drugs. In collaboration with post-doctoral researcher Keith Olson, Andra’s summer project specifically looks at treatment for opioid addiction. Opioids are a class of drugs that are commonly used as painkillers but are highly addictive and often abused. While some opioids, such as heroin, are harmful and addictive to the human body, some opioids are not and can be used as a treatment for opioid addiction. One of the current drugs used for opioid addiction treatment is called buprenorphine; Andra is specifically working on modifying buprenorphine in a way that increases its likelihood to attach to the opioid receptor, making it more effective for treatment.

Thanina Makhlouf

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Project Description: Nina is pursuing summer research in the Daly Design and Engineering Education Research Group alongside Associate Professor Dr. Shanna Daly and Laura Murphy, a graduate student at the lab. Nina’s summer research focuses on research in human-centered design. Nina’s project is an exploratory study that will investigate how designers and engineers perceive their users in the design process and how sketches with people impact the ideas generated. Nina’s role in this project is to work alongside Laura Murphy to create a codebook for the data analysis which will include patterns found within the data to make further research conclusions to inform the study.

Alison Naif

Major: Public Health

Project Description: Alison’s summer research involves infectious diseases and determining how they are spread in different hospital and community settings. Alison is an undergraduate member of The Snitkin Lab, which focuses on the way various multi-drug resistant microorganisms spread from person to person. Alison’s specific project focuses on Clostridium difficile (C. diff), an infectious bacteria associated with hospital admission, and tracking its spread in children. Under the leadership of mentor Arianna Miles-Jay, Alison is responsible for analyzing samples of C. diff collected from patients and looking for patterns in disease transmission.

Jennifer Williams

Major: Biochemistry

Project Description: Jennifer’s summer research is through the Cai Laboratory at Michigan Medicine where she explores the intersection of computer science and neuroscience under the advisement of Dr. Dawen Cai and Ph.D. candidate, Logan Walker. The lab’s research project aims to understand the structure of neurons in a mouse’s brain. Neurons are the fundamental components that communicate between and within different regions of the brain; however, there are many unknowns due to their sheer density and the complex nature of their interactions with one another. This summer, Jennifer is assisting with the creation and testing of computer programs that aid in gathering measurements to quantify features of neurons’ shapes. In future and ongoing brain mapping studies, these metrics could lead to learning more about the roles of individual neural circuits and how they impact brain functionality.

2019 Summer Scholars

Andra Campbell

Major: Biochemistry

Project Description: I am continuing my UROP project studying monarch butterflies. Specifically we are studying the genetic basis for migration in monarch butterflies because in monarch butterflies migration is not a learned behavior. We are looking at the correlation between diapause (reproductive pause) and directionality in a fall migrant monarch with the possibility that a single pathway controls both traits. This research helps with the understanding of the evolution of migration as very little is known about it as it is a very complex phenotype to develop evolutionarily. A side project will to be to develop a long range tracker to put on monarch butterflies for future experiments. This project will involve collaboration with engineering departments to develop a tracker that is able to transmit a large enough signal to track but is also small enough to fit on a monarch butterfly.

Summer Goals: I hope to explore what life as a full time researcher entails to help decide whether it is something I want to pursue in the future. I also hope to explore my scientific interests while helping make progress on the project. I'd also like to learn new scientific techniques and data analysis. Lastly, I'd like to start to get an answer to the question posed in my project as I am very excited to see what results because the topic is very interesting to me.

Lesley Escobar

Major: Chemisty

Project Description: Electroorganic chemistry describes an alternative to traditional synthetic methods that uses electric currents instead of toxic and costly chemical reagents to accomplish small molecular transformations. This process is a possible greener alternative for alcohol oxidation. The use of TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl-N-oxyl), will act as an electrocatalyst for alcohol oxidation. Using the copper catalyst azide-alkyne cycloaddtion (CuAAC) or “click” chemistry we are able to covalently attach TEMPO to glassy carbon electrodes (GCE). These electrodes can then be used to electrochemically convert alcohols to aldehydes and nitriles.

Summer Goals: The initial goal of this project is to develop an efficient way to convert alcohols to aldehydes using TEMPO modified GCEs. Then we will focus our efforts on the nitrilation of benzaldehyde using the same electrodes. We will then investigate combining the two transformations in a single reaction vessel. Ultimately, we intend to use glassy carbon electrodes (GCE) covalently modified with TEMPO to convert alcohols and aldehydes to nitriles in a simple, green, one-pot procedure.

Sydney Jones

Major: Biomedical Engineering

Project Description: Many of the leading causes of blindness, such as diabetic retinopathy, cause vision loss due to the formation of new blood vessels. Early detection of diseases in the eye is a pivotal step for doctors as they try to determine specific treatment for a specific patient’s needs. The development of novel imaging system has enabled complex imaging to analyze various areas of the eye in depth, such as different blood vessels and layers of the eye. With the use of imaging systems such as Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Photoacoustic Microscopy (PAM), these systems have allowed researchers to study larger animals, such as rabbits, and gain groundbreaking images from these systems. This is imperative because the larger the eye is, the more that results can resemble that of a human eye. The purpose of this study is to use noninvasive methods (OCT and PAM) to analyze retinal vessels in the eye, and these images can be used to see cellular markers for onsite of an eye disease.

Summer Goals: Using this technique, we can find that our multimodal imaging system can visualize both anatomy including the retinal layers along with early detection of neovascularization through PAM. These results suggest that this real-time multimodal molecular imaging has significant potential to improve the care of patients with eye diseases, which is in line with our goals.

2018 Summer Scholars

Taryn Hayes

Major: Neuroscience

Project Description: The goal of our research project is to investigate mechanisms of obesity-induced immune system activation and myelopoiesis in children and adolescents. Our study hopes to gain a better understanding of the specific inflammatory procresses that occur in overweight and obese children with type one and type two diabetes.

Summer Goals: I hope to gain some more knowledge in a lab setting. I have obtained all of my lab techniques from classes, so I am excited to gain new outside knowledge. In addition, I would like to gain more experience in a clinical setting before I attend medical school in the future. Finally, I hope that the results of our research project contributes to the prevention and treatment of diabetes and obesity.

Ariel Roy

Major: Environmental Engineering

Project Description: My research project centers on antibiotic resistance in wastewater treatment. Currently, there is some concern in environmental engineering circles that the way that we treat wastewater is promoting the genesis of antibiotic resistant microorganisms. However, the scientific research available on this effect is limited. My research project aims to quantify the amount of antibiotic resistance found in wastewater at different steps of treatment, as well as possibly track and analyze specific stretches of DNA associated with antibiotic resistance through the water sanitation process.

Summer Goals: My goals for my research experience are essentially to learn as much as I can and to be as helpful as possible in furthering the project that I'll be working on. I want to expand and improve my knowledge of microbiology and lab techniques. I also want to use this opportunity to better understand what a life in environmental engineering research would look like for me, to determine if I want to pursue a career in research.

Emma Schmidt

Major: Public Health Sciences

Project Description: I will be joining the Bay Area Women's Center team as a Prevention Education Intern. My primary responsibilities will include becoming trained to answer phone calls from a crisis line, researching methods of intervention and prevention of violence and abuse, creating educational presentations on sexual safety and healthy relationships, and scheduling meetings to present my findings to the community. In the past, these presentations have been tailored and given to a plethora of different organizations and people in Bay County, ranging from interpersonal violence solutions for local businesses, to healthy relationships for middle school students. Specialty trainings, such as “Cut it Out,” have been given to employees and professionals working at salons, enabling them to recognize the warning signs of domestic and sexual abuse and refer their clients to safe resources. Furthermore, “Happy Bear” is a program for children from the ages of 4 to 7 that teaches kids the difference between good and bad touches, empowering them to learn and communicate about their boundaries. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work for, help, and educate the people in my hometown, leading to a safer and more knowledgeable community.

Summer Goals: There are many different paths that can be taken in the field of public health. One of the goals I have for my internship is to decide if I would like to continue doing community education and prevention in my future career. Another goal I have is to educate and help the women and children in my community as much as I can.

Paden Graham

Major: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Project Description: My research this summer will allow me to expand upon my UROP experience. I will be looking at the effects that sepsis has on the immune systems of mice by doing hands on experiments.

Summer Goals: I hope to gain a more complete understanding on the field of research while learning how to follow new procedures and use advanced equipment.

Noella Holmer

Major: Cellular and Molecular Biology

Project Description: The purpose of this research project is to investigate the gene expression of certain fruit fly neurons that affect the development of areas of the brain that signal mating and courtship. The project focuses on various enhancers, sections of DNA that increase the probability of a gene being expressed. In this case, I will be focusing on a gene called fruitless that aids in the mating process of fruit flies. The project first involves having two genetically different fruit flies mate. This will be done with many genetic variants. Their progeny’s brains are then dissected and immunostained. Immunostaining uses different antibodies to bind and stain to certain proteins in the brain, resulting in these sections fluorescing a specific color. The brains are analyzed with a confocal microscope that detects this fluorescence to create a series of images that show the brain’s layers. The presence of certain colors demonstrates where specific genes are being expressed within the brain and potentially their function.

Summer Goals: My main goal for this experience is to gain a better understanding of what a research position entails and how research is conducted. I see this summer project as an opportunity to not only gain experience, but also a chance to determine if this is a career path that I would enjoy pursuing. I hope to learn new lab techniques this summer to form a foundation of skills that will be applicable to further research endeavors. I also hope to learn different ways to problem solve and brainstorm new ideas, as much of research is being able to try different methods and make necessary alterations as needed. As I do not know much about neurobiology, another goal of mine is to increase my knowledge and expertise on the subject. In regards to the project itself, my goal is to analyze thirty different fly crosses and determine if their gene expression is driving certain developmental aspects of the brain.

Jillian Genova

Major: Chemistry

Project Description: The Keane Lab investigates the structure of noncoding RNAs in order to help us further understand the functions that they play in biology. I am joining a new project that focuses on the characterization of pre-micro RNA structure by untiling physical techniques such as NMR spectroscopy.

Summer Goals: Through this experience, I hope to develop my interest in research and my engagement in the scientific community. With this opportunity I am able to explore an exciting and interdisciplinary area of research. I look forward to understanding the investigative processes of research as well as develop essential technical laboratory skill.

Ana Timoficiuc

Major: Aerospacing Engineering

Project Description: I will be working on outreach throughout the summer, as well as one of the following: programming robots to mimic landing on an asteroid, or adding temperature sensors to include heat considerations in the control of a gyroscopically controlled cart. However, the research lab I am a part of also gives me the opportunity to explore other projects that include graduate student research on the effectiveness of batteries in the aviation industry (and the improving of them) and tinkering with kids toys so that your mind can control what happens when you tell it to levitate an object, among other exciting projects.

Summer Goals: It was January when I realized many people around me had started finalizing their summer plans. I didn’t know what I wanted to do or where to start until I saw the research award application from WISE. I had no experience with what research in the real world was–my main source of research “knowledge” coming from movies and on-occasion articles I’d read–but I knew I wanted to find out. I intend this research experience to be enveloped by a sea of growth: I want to discover what research means to me, what I value in the work I aspire to pursue, and how I manage my independence in the bounds set by my research and the summer scene of Ann Arbor. I also anticipate the Harry Potter-themed outreach I will be a part of as I will get more experience in the planning and importance of such events, and the valuable practice of working alongside professors and my professional peers.

2017 Summer Scholars

Hope Norris

Hope Norris

Elaine R. Feldman Scholar

Major: Neuroscience & Gender and Health, Class of 2020

This summer I volunteered in Dr. Sari van Anders’ social neuroendocrinology research lab. The lab’s research focuses on examining hormones and intimacy in social contexts, particularly concerning pair bonds in connection with the social modulation of testosterone.The main study that was running was for a senior student’s honors thesis. It was a series of interviews about how individuals may use a new diagram for depicting their sexualities and gender identities. I helped transcribe the interviews for that project, which was an extremely rewarding task because I learned a valuable qualitative research skill as well as listened to people’s life stories. It amazed me that participants were able to trust the researchers enough to share such personal experiences.With this study, I was involved with putting up posters to recruit for the study, setting up the testing environment, running participants through the study, and processing the hormone samples that the participants provided. It was an incredible experience to be able to help with so much of a research study, as I learned a lot about research practices, ethics, and problem solving when events didn’t go according to plan.Thanks to my experiences in the van Anders lab this summer, I’ve decided to pursue a senior honors thesis of my own when I am entering my senior year. I believe that the resources I have used during my research experience will not only benefit my research in the future, but will also benefit me during the rest of my time here at Michigan.

Anna Li Aguirre

Anna Li Aguirre

Elaine R. Feldman Scholar

Major: Chemistry, Class of 2019

I have dreamt of being a scientist for longer than I can remember. From getting science kits every holiday and going to science camps whenever I get the chance, I can't get enough of it.When I declared chemistry major, I knew I wanted to be in a chemistry lab. This year, I joined an inorganic, organometallic chemistry lab where I design catalysts to functionalize different bonds that weren’t accessible beforehand. Being in charge of my own project, with guidance, of course, has been probably one of the mostfulfilling things I have done so far. It has been very stressful but also extremely rewarding.The Elaine R. Feldman Scholarship let me continue my research over the summer. This summer, not only have I been able to do and find what I really love, but I also got to learn a ton about grad school. I always had assumed I’d be getting my PhD, but now I know that it is really what I want to do. I've learned how to be a better individual. Research has taught me to be more focused and to not be afraid to ask questions. Research is my solace and my happy place where I know I can succeed.

Lindsay Rasmussen

Lindsay Rasmussen

WISE RP Alumni Scholar

Major: Environmental Engineering, Class of 2019

I am very excited that I was able to stay over the summer, continue my research and build stronger connections. I would not have been able to afford living in Ann Arbor on my own, so I am extremely thankful!The research that I have been doing is for sustainable shrimp cultivation. Currently, shrimp farms release large amounts of ammonia which cause algal blooms. Our shrimp are in a recirculating tank, which reuses the same water. In order for the shrimp to survive (as they cannot live in large amounts of ammonia), the water goes through a bio-filter. In the future, I am hoping to take a closer look at the shrimp themselves and see what we can do to make cultivating them more efficient.Not only have I learned what goes into a research project, but I have also been introduced to many people in my area of interest. I am getting a major in environmental engineering and a minor in earth science, so this is a perfect fit for me.

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Summer Scholars

2026 Summer Scholars

2025 Summer Scholars

Danielle Becker

Jane Foreman

Hana Hasanovic

Julia Joseph

Maya Kama

Bhumi Kumar

Mad Lindsey

Alisha Malik

Marika Ruppart

Paige Schuiling

Keely Weber

Jennifer Weje

Romy Wilson

2024 Summer Scholars

Shadan Alrawi

Poorani Arunchunaikani

Zandra Curley

Aditri Gokul

Jessica Kaczor

Mad Lindsey

Harika Lingamarla

Maia Lintner

Grace Lombardo

Monica Nicovic

Samantha Paris

Amelia Rohim

Marisa Rose

Aida Ruan

Eva Skarbinski

2023 Summer Scholars

Nandini Arya

Keira Bunce

Annika Fuhrer

Angelina Hamblin

Jessica Kaczor

Grace Lombardo

Natasha Mehta

Grace Thompson

Jennifer Wang

Sabrina Wong

Summer Scholars 2022

Rachel Hendrian

Dre Hubers

Allyson May

Taylor McCollin

Aida Ruan

Grace Thompson

Morgan Vanderleest

Jennifer Weje

2021 Summer Scholars

Denise Schlautman

Jenny Park

Julia Li

Anya Young

2020 Summer Scholars

Andra Campbell

Thanina Makhlouf

Alison Naif

Jennifer Williams

2019 Summer Scholars

Andra Campbell

Lesley Escobar

Sydney Jones

2018 Summer Scholars

Taryn Hayes

Ariel Roy

Emma Schmidt

Paden Graham

Noella Holmer

Jillian Genova

Ana Timoficiuc

2017 Summer Scholars

Hope Norris

Anna Li Aguirre