In vivo
multiphoton microscopy enables the imaging of individual fluorescently-labeled
cells over time within a living organism. However, the availability of
fluorescent cell labels currently limits the number of cells that can be
distinguished at once. An increased number of fluorescent labels would allow
for better distinction between different cell types, individual cells within a
cell type, or even between intracellular structures. I currently work under the
guidance of Dr. Nozomi Nishimura and Mitch Pender developing multiple
lentiviral vectors with various cellular and subcellular tags carrying
different colors for use in both cultured cells and in vivo.
I am an undergraduate, biological sciences major in the
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, graduating in spring 2017. Because
promoting women in STEM is important to me, I co-founded the Scientista Chapter
at Cornell, under the guidance of Dr. Nozomi Nishimura. As a McNair scholar and
a P3 scholar, I intend on pursuing a doctorate to work with non-traditional
approaches to medicine using viral vectors in gene therapy.Â