As the climate crisis intensifies, reducing emissions from large-scale production of animal products – particularly beef and dairy – will become increasingly important. Companies like Beyond Meat are successfully bringing new plant-based products to market that are not only more environmentally and nutritionally friendly, but also inching closer to becoming indistinguishable from animal products. This innovation is driven by a combination of scientific, engineering, and culinary ingenuity, to which I contributed as a Research Associate.
Biological processes are driven by a complex orchestration of gene expression and suppression. Genes are encoded in DNA, which is tightly packaged into chromatin fibers – protein-DNA structures that make up chromosomes. Physicochemical alterations to these chromatin fibers (epigenetic modifications) are not only important factors in gene regulation, but are impacted by genes themselves. In Dr. Oliver Bell’s lab at the University of Southern California, I used CRISPR-based gene editing techniques to investigate the genetic basis of chromatin modifications in cultured mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs).
Most vertebrates have a limited capacity to regenerate lost body parts, but some invertebrates are exceptionally good at it. Among them are the acoel worm H. miama, or the three-banded panther worm, which can regenerate an entire missing half of its body – head or tail. The worm accomplishes this with an arsenal of pluripotent stem cells. While most cells in vertebrate animals differentiate as the embryo develops, the panther worm maintains a population of these stem cells into adulthood. In Dr. Mansi Srivastava’s lab at Harvard, I tracked pluripotency and morphology in the developing H. miamia embryo.
The Arnold Arboretum is home to an impressively diverse collection of plant species from around the world, making it an ideal place for researchers to collect data from a variety of specimens across the seasons. I collected samples and analyzed data for two separate projects: with Dr. Ailene Ettinger, I assessed phenological changes in >100 trees from March through August; with Dr. Jessica Savage, I monitored flowering behaviors and physical changes in several precocious flowering species. It was an undeniably memorable first research experience: in the late winter I walked the Arboretum in knee-deep snow; in the spring I smelled the first chorus of magnolia blooms; and in the summer, I raced from clouds of mosquitoes in a golf cart.