Summer Scholars

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

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 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

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

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 

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 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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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.