Ayushi Dave is a senior biology major graduating this spring.

 

My research project is called, “Investigating the Role of Effete in Border Cell Migration in Drosophila melanogaster”. 

 

Effete is an E3 ligase, which is involved in the protein degradation pathway. The Proteins degradation process marks and degrade unwanted/damaged proteins in the human body. By studying the role this gene plays in the fruit fly, we can determine its role and apply that to human homologues. To determine the role this gene/protein plays, I will use the tools available already to manipulate transgenic flies (mainly through RNAi, overexpression, and fluorescent imaging).  

 

Who is your mentor for your project?  

My mentor is Dr. Starz-Gaiano, from the Biological Sciences department. 

 

I found Dr. Starz through a summer internship. I was one of the 2 students nominated from HCC to be part of a 8 week Summer Internship (Stem Build) at UMBC. I had read the abstracts of all the professors whose labs were participating in this summer internship, and Dr. Starz’s research interested me the most. Dr. Starz lab has a strong foundation in cell biology and genetics. Cell biology happened to be my favorite class; I loved the material that was taught, and developed a strong interest in that field and knew it was something I was ready to dive deeper into. I reached out to Dr. Starz asking more questions about her research, the kind of lab techniques her lab focuses on, and conveyed I was strongly interested in joining her lab. In my head I was worried everyone is going to pick her because this is clearly the best out there, so I wanted to do everything in my power to make the cut. 

 

Dr. Starz’s research sparked an interest in me for many, many reasons. Firstly, the topic of cell migration is extremely fascinating. Cells are traveling to the right place at the right time, in this extremely controlled way. When you cut yourself, within 2 days there will be a scab and new skin will have already started growing. How did your cells know to do this? They don’t have a brain like us humans to think consciously about where to go, yet they have chemoattractants and other cues they follow to migrate in a controlled way. When cell migration becomes uncontrolled, it is known as cancer. By understanding the mechanisms of cell migration, we can apply that knowledge to larger applications like cancer progression and provide ways to reduce cancer metastasis. 

 

The most unexpected thing about being a researcher to me was reading scientific articles. I didn’t know that's how researchers learnt new information. Another thing that came to me as a surprise is that waiting time in research. It is not a quick in and out, “oh I found my answer”. You are constantly going down rabbit holes, building from unexpected results, and much more. The process of research is very different from anything you may have encountered before. 

  

Looking back, my research journey as a whole has been a rewarding experience. I work closely with Ph.D. students, who constantly teach me new things in the lab. I used to have a lot of difficulty differentiating between a male and female fly, but today I can think of multiple different characteristics of each. I try to identify the different parts on the flies off a large chart in the fly room outlining many differences between the flies. In research you are constantly learning new information, and connecting everything you know to apply that. Working with people who are experts in this field is a privilege in my opinion because they are constantly molding and enhancing my knowledge in the wet lab, and theory based. 

 

I attend lab meetings with my Professor, doctoral students, undergrads and this taught me how to work in a lab setting. Attending weekly lab meetings, answering questions, presenting, has taught me a lot. It has tested my confidence, and also allowed me to develop skills I wouldn’t have otherwise. 

 

What gives me the most joy while doing research is when I find some exciting things in my work. When I image the egg chambers and I see a lot of cell migration delay I get excited because that is indicating that the gene I am studying is important in cell migration. This motivates me to keep going till I have reached the bottom. 

 

I will be presenting my research at URCAD online this spring. 

 

Think about what class you enjoyed the most. Not the teacher, but what material in the class really resonated with your interests. What topic interests your curiosity to dig deeper, play around and learn more about? Once you discover this, talk to a professor that you really like, who inspires you, is an expert in your field, and who you trust to help steer you in the right direction. For me this was my cell biology professor at Howard Community College. Once you know what you want, reach out to the professors, and be persistent. Tell them why you want to work with them and their lab, and don’t give up till you get your chance. 

 

I aspire to be a physician in the future. 

Dr. Mira Marcus-Kalish of Tel Aviv University

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CARTA Distinguished Lecture Series

Medical Informatics – Promise and Barriers Towards Precise Medicine

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Dr. Mira Marcus-Kalish
Director, International Research Affairs
Tel Aviv University

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10:00 am-12:00 pm ET, Monday, 23 Nov. 2020

Online via Webex

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The challenging time facing the pandemic forced us to relate to the human being’s broadband picture and his surrounding as one functioning system across countries and continents. The need is to relate both to the Micro (including in-body, physical, and mental conditions) and the Macro (such as environmental, cultural, and economic factors) providing a comprehensive understanding of the human body functioning in the surrounding, towards a precise, personalized “disease signature,” definition, especially these days. A systematic literature review on the “disease signature” term revealed no clear definition. In many articles, the “disease signature” phrase appears as a single biomarker (often genetic), mainly related to neurology or oncology. (Stemmer, A. at All, 2019. Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, 67(4)). The major goal is the unity of nature, science, and technology, from the nanoscale towards converging knowledge and tools, at a confluence of disciplines, as was envisioned by the NSF in 2001 (NBIC) and further at the joint EU-US WTEC effort “Converging of Knowledge, Technology, Society,” Roco et al., Springer 2013.

The COVID-19 global health emergency increased the need for early precise diagnosis and treatment while facing major physical and mental threat and stress, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These understandings reemphasized the need to join all forces, converge, verify and embed all knowledge, expertise, and new advanced technologies in the various disciplines. Furthermore, it enforced to verify the data originated by various sources while bridging all cultural, conceptual, curation and technology barriers, preserving privacy and ethics regulations and ensuring reliable advanced analysis tools. All of the above provide profound insight into the human body and brain functioning in the surrounding and reliable “Disease Signature,” followed by suitable therapeutic treatment.

The question to be asked: Are we able to collect Big enough data, distributed and representative enough, while bridging all barriers and accurate analysis tools to ensure reliable, replicable, reproducible outcome towards precise, personalized medicine? The Brain Medical Informatics Platform (MIP), developed by the EU Human Brain Flagship Project, as part of the EBRAINS platform, is a key feasibility study along these lines. It involves broad clinical data collections from 30 hospitals, converging knowledge and data, embedding new technologies for data privacy, preservation, and curation, as well as sophisticated analysis tools. The MIP and EBRAINS framework goal is to identify “BRAIN Disease Signatures” towards reliable medical treatment. A 3C (Categorize, Classify, Cluster) Methodology, developed in our lab, is one of the tools available on the MIP. It incorporates expert medical knowledge and experience into the analysis process of disease manifestation and potential biomarkers towards reliable insights. The 3C approach was applied to the ADNI (Alzheimer’s disease Neuro Imaging) cohort, discovering association with new subtypes, which were later verified using the Rome Gemelli hospital labs clinical data. Other case studies were Parkinson’s Disease, genetic and biomarker research: (Tal Kozlovski, et al., 2019, Frontiers in Neurology, Movement Disorders), as well as PTSD research (Ben-Zion et al., 2020, Translational Psychiatry), both in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Medical Center. The COVID-19 global health emergency increased the need for early precise diagnosis and treatment while facing major physical and mental threat and stress, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These understandings reemphasized the need to join all forces, converge, verify and embed all knowledge, expertise, and new advanced technologies in the various disciplines. Furthermore, it enforced to verify the data originated by various sources while bridging all cultural, conceptual, curation and technology barriers, preserving privacy and ethics regulations and ensuring reliable advanced analysis tools. All of the above to provide profound insight into the human body and brain functioning in the surrounding as well as reliable “Disease Signature”, followed by suitable therapeutic treatment.

Providing “Healthy Aging” to the elderly is a perfect example conceiving all, these days, as the elderly became one of the vulnerable groups at risk. The loneliness and isolation forced by the current pandemic results in severe conditions, including stress disorders and PTSD. Thus, an International “Healthy Aging” initiative was established at TAU, promoting broad interdisciplinary research, combining knowledge and data analysis as well as advanced technologies, from most areas of science: including economics, art, social sciences, mental and physical health, lifestyle, engineering, etc. All that to ensure the best fitted reliable treatment and a balanced quality of life to the elderly in general, and in these days, in particular.

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Dr. Mira Marcus-Kalish is the Director of International Research Collaborations at Tel Aviv University. Her main areas of research are mathematical modeling, converging technologies, and data mining. Dr. Kalish holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, where she developed one of the first computerized systems for electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnosis. Her postdoctoral training was at Harvard University, the MBCRR (Molecular Biology Computer Research and Resource) laboratory, and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She was awarded her B.Sc. in Statistics and Biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Professor Elisa Bertino of Purdue University

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Security and Privacy in the IoT

Professor Elisa Bertino
Purdue University

1:00-2:00 pm Friday, 20 November 2020

Participate via Webex

Phone +1-202-860-2110; code: 120 706 1902

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The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm refers to the network of physical objects or”things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable objects to exchange data with servers, centralized systems, and/or other connected devices based on a variety of communication infrastructures. IoT makes it possible to sense and control objects creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems. IoT will usher automation in a large number of application domains, ranging from manufacturing and energy management (e.g., Smart Grid), to healthcare management and urban life (e.g. Smart City). However, because of its fine-grained, continuous, and pervasive data acquisition and control capabilities, IoT raises concerns about security and privacy. Deploying existing security solutions to IoT is not straightforward because of device heterogeneity, highly dynamic and possibly unprotected environments, and large scale. In this talk, after outlining key challenges in IoT security and privacy, we present initial approaches to securing IoT data and then focus on our recent work on security analysis for cellular network protocols and edge-based anomaly detection.

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Elisa Bertino is a professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. Prior to joining Purdue, she was a professor and department head at the Department of Computer Science and Communication of the University of Milan. She has been a visiting researcher at the IBM Research Laboratory (now Almaden) in San Jose, at the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, at Rutgers University, and at Telcordia Technologies. Her main research interests include security, privacy, database systems, distributed systems, and sensor networks. Her research focuses on digital identity management, biometrics, IoT security, security of 4G and 5G cellular network protocols, and policy infrastructures for managing distributed systems. Prof. Bertino has published more than 700 papers in all major refereed journals, and in proceedings of international conferences and symposia. She has given keynotes, tutorials, and invited presentations at conferences and other events. She is a Fellow member of ACM, IEEE, and AAAS. She received the 2002 IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award “For outstanding contributions to database systems and database security and advanced data management systems”, the 2005 IEEE Computer Society Tsutomu Kanai Award for “Pioneering and innovative research contributions to secure distributed systems”, and the ACM 2019-2020 Athena Lecturer Award.

For today's Wednesday meeting we'll be watching a GDC (Game Developer's conference) video on how to combat burnout! 

If interested, the meeting will take place form 12-1pm in our discord server!

Link to our server: https://discord.gg/k9QKByV

Shannon Clancy '19, mechanical engineering, was on NPR on Monday, November 16, 2020 to discuss her capstone project from last year.

To hear Shannon, start at 13:55:

(Look for "On the Record")

To read more about our capstone projects (course name ENME444), visit our website.