Showcase

The research focus of Dr. Singh's laboratory is to understand mechanisms underlying secondary complications of diabetes. The vascular system provides organs and tissues the necessary nutrients to relay their functions. The skewed gene-environment int ... t interactions (aka epigenetics), predominant in diabetics, lead to deficiency in such vascular functions known as diabetic vasculopathy. My focus of research for this internship was how to detect such abrupt epigenetic changes particularly promoter DNA methylation in diabetic ischemic tissue. I studied how to detect if a methyl group is added to the cytosine residue in the promoter of vascular gene, thereby suppressing its expression. My responsibilities included learning and conducting laboratory techniques such as mammalian cell culture, collagen hydrogel preparation, immunohistochemistry, PCR, gel electrophoresis, western blotting, and bisulfite conversion for gene promoter methylation studies. In this presentation, I will be explaining how diabetes induced pathological DNA hypermethylation can silence vascular genes and can contribute to diabetic vasculopathy. Such information can be translated clinically by targeted demethylation of such epigenetically silenced genes to bring back ischemic tissue perfusion. Acknowledgement: The laboratory of Dr, Kanhaiya Singh is supported by U.S. Department of Defense grant W81XWH-22-1-0146. We express deep appreciation of Dr. Chandan K Sen, Director, ICRME for this opportunity and his support during this internship duration. Read more

“An end to breast cancer through thinking, sharing, and understanding normal.” The Komen Tissue Bank (KTB) is the only repository in the world that collects normal breast tissue, matched serum, and plasma for researchers to use as their control varia ... ble in their research. This year the KTB will hold four breast tissue collection events. Events occur at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center in Indianapolis and in another U.S. city with high concentrations of a diverse population. I had the opportunity to help and attend two collection events with different roles each time. I volunteered as a surgical assistant my first time and I worked in the lab the second time. As a surgical assistant, I set up the room between each patient and aided the surgeon during the biopsy. As a laboratory assistant, I worked on aliquoting. Upon delivery of the blood, after centrifuge, I worked on collecting the plasma. In addition to my main two jobs, I also worked on escorting donors to the height and weight station, giving me an opportunity to speak with them and hear their inspiring reasons for donating. Read more

My ePortfolio contains a summary of the work I have accomplished while interning with Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn through the LHSI program. During this program I worked alongside respected professionals to analyze adolescent substance use disorders and th ... eir predictors. Read more

The most important part of scientific research– beyond the data and the implications of a breakthrough finding– is disseminating your results. The goal of my project through LHSI was to operationalize my internship in manuscript writing by producing ... a quick, comprehensive video of the writing process for research publication for students interested in research. Read more

The goal of this project was to go over what I have done in the LHSI program. I have created a powerpoint of the main projects I worked on in the past year.

My presentation is based on research done at my LHSI research site. It's based upon attempting to find a new therapy for a rare disease that currently has none—osteopetrosis. In it, I test a new drug that I believe has therapeutic potential for the d ... the dis... Read more