Undergraduate Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) Research and Thesis

Research and Thesis

Research opportunities and fellowships
Past Theses
Back to All Categories
  • MCB Thesis 2018
    • Endogenous Gene Modulation by Direct Delivery of Zinc Finger Artificial Transcription Factors Allen, Jackson PI: Joung, Keith
    • Characterizing the Role of Intratumor Heterogeneity in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Drug Resistance Amich, Jose PI: Brugge, Joan
    • PrPC Binds Soluble Aggregates of Tau and α-Synuclein Asfaw, Adhana PI: Walsh, Dominic
    • Assessing the Glycosignature of Exosomes Derived from a Human Colon Cancer Cell Line Castillo, Gerardo PI: Sackstein, Robert
    • Exercise Induces the Birth of New Cardiomyocytes in the Adult Mammalian Heart Gonzalez, Emilia PI: Lee, Richard
    • Characterizing the Role of idsE In Vivo in Populations of Proteus mirabilis Hao, Amy PI: Gibbs, Karine
    • Towards higher standards for quality control and analysis of single-cell Hi-C data Horton, Connor PI: Park, Peter
    • Generating Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma in Danio Rerio Jin, Alexander PI: Langenau, David
    • Genetic and Pharmacological Corrections of Aberrant α-Synuclein Homeostasis Kantor, Elizabeth PI: Dettmer, Ulf
    • The Role of IdrE in an Effector/Immunity System of Proteus mirabilis Keteku, Emma PI: Gibbs, Karine
    • Creation and Characterization of an Isogenic G6PD Deficiency Model System Lopez, Ashley PI: Duraisingh, Manoj
    • Targeting MUC1-C Suppresses EZH2 Through an NF-κB p65 and MYC Dependent Mechanism Markert, Tahireh PI: Kufe, Donald
    • Identifying the Regions at which IMP2 Regulates Myc mRNA Translation Narayan, Priyanka PI: Weissleder, Ralph
    • A Structure-Function Analysis of IdsE, a Self-Identity Protein Involved in the Self -and Non-Self-Recognition System of Proteus mirabilis Pinnock, Akeem PI: Gibbs, Karine
    • RNA methylation regulates viability and translation in chemoresistant cancer cells Plotsker, Ethan PI: Vasudevan, Shoba
    • Generation and Characterization of Novel Anti-PD1 Antibodies for Cancer Immunotherapy Qiu, Mengting PI: Alt, Frederick
    • Identification and Characterization of a Novel RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase Mutation and Its Impacts on RNA Interference (RNAi) in Caenorhabditis elegans Reddy, Neha PI: Hunter, Craig
    • Investigating the Activity and Regulation of CTD Phosphatases Saganty, Rachel PI: Buratowski, Stephen
    • Therapeutic fusion proteins for targeted immune suppression Siraj, Yasmin PI: Silver, Pamela
    •  Modeling and Investigating the Effects of CC-885 in Murine Cells Sullivan, Aurora PI: Ebert, Benjamin
    • Follistatin-like 3 and regulation of age-related cardiac hypertrophy Yamada, Jessica
    • A Non-Processive PBP2 Mutant Enables Novel Insight into Glycosyltransferase Activity and Inhibition in MRSA Yang, Alan PI: Kahne, Daniel
  • MCB Thesis 2017
    • A Characterization of the Guanylate Binding Proteins During C. trachomatis Infection Harrison, Noah PI: Starnbach, Michael
    • The killer lymphocyte protease granzyme B disrupts protein chaperones in bacteria Binker Cosen, Andy PI: Lieberman, Judy
    • Profiling the DNA Specificity of Recombinases by in vitro Selection and High-Throughput DNA Sequencing Afeyan, Lena PI: Liu, David
    • Changes in Genetic Instability and Cellular Fitness via Experimental Evolution of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Armenta, David PI: Murray, Andrew
    • Targeted genome editing to replicate loss-of-function variants: A pathway for exploration of novel therapeutic approaches for Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases Ashrafzadeh, Sahar PI: MacArthur, Daniel
    • Towards an Age-Dependent Study of Innervation Patterns of Lymph Nodes Austin, John PI: von Andrian, Ulrich
    • Dissecting the Antigen Presentation System During Infection Brooks, Donald PI: Chevrier, Nicolas
    • A Wnt-Dependent Model of Synaptic Organization in the Outer Retina Cousins, Henry PI: Sanes, Joshua
    • Characterizing a Novel Mouse Model of Inducible Lubricin Deficiency and its Implications for Osteoarthritis Coyan, Mara PI: Warman, Matt
    • Investigating adaptive aminoglycoside resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Cummins, Kaelyn PI: Hung, Deborah
    • Investigating the Role of Dual Inhibition of Histone Deacetylase and Lysine Specific Demethylase 1 in the Context of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma Kim, Mirhee PI: Shi, Yang
    • A computational approach for classifying nervous system cell subtypes using single-cell mRNA expression profiles Lin, Victoria PI: McCarroll, Steven
    • Biochemical Characterization of BAM7 Derivatives as Molecular Modulators of Pro-Apoptotic BAX Linskey, Eamon PI: Walensky, Loren
    • Scalable Biofabrication of Vascularized Human Liver Tissue Nam, Thuy PI: Lewis, Jennifer
    • Sleep and Aging: Associations and Causation between Leukocyte Telomere Length, Sleep Duration, and Sleep-Related Genetic Variants Onion, Zoe PI: Czeisler, Charles
    • Pursuing Synergy: Combining a Pan-Class PI3K Inhibitor with Novel Small Molecule Inhibitors of c-Myc Ors, Muhammed PI: Koehler, Angela
    • Identifying Neurologically Relevant Substrates of Vaccinia-Related Kinase 2 Sha, Carrie PI: Schier, Alexander
    • Negative Regulators of p53 as Vulnerabilities in SWI/SNF-Mutant Cancers Song, Melinda PI: Hahn, William
    • Enabling Natural Killer Cell Cancer Immunotherapy Using CRISPR-Cas9 Deletion of Inhibitory Receptor Genes Vora, Kruti PI: Cowan, Chad
    • Divide and Conquer: Investigating the Role of FtsQ in Regulating Cell Division in Mycobacterium Smegmatis Zhang, Jenna PI: Rubin, Eric
    • Using iPSC-derived neurons to model cell fate-specific effects of Alzheimer’s disease Zhou, Constance PI: Young-Pearce, Tracy
    • Genomic characterization of urethritis-associated Neisseria meningitidis Ma, Kevin PI: Grad, Yonatan
    • Patterns of murine T follicular helper cell differentiation Murphy, Samuel PI: Pillai, Shiv
    • Understanding Regulation of Splicing During the Innate Immune Response Yu, Kimberley PI: Burge, Chris
    • From Depolarization to Neuronal Differentiation: Analysis of Npas4, Npas3 and Arnt2 in Hippocampal Development Jowell, Amanda PI: Greenberg, Michael
    • Development of a Macro-Organoid Explant Bioreactor for a Colorectal Cancer Xenograft Platform Fulop, Daniel PI: Traverso, Giovanni
  • MCB Thesis 2016
    • Characterization of the Mitochondrial Permeability Transition and Localization of Cyclophilin 1 in Drosophila melanogaster Artiga, Daniel PI: Clapham, David
    • A Functional Analysis of GDF5 Enhancers using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Genome Editing Ahmed, Eman Riaz PI: Capellini, Terrence
    • The True Powerhouse of the Cell: The Role of Neuronal Glycolysis in Acute Metabolic Stress During Glucose and Ketone Body Metabolism Bose, Shree PI: Yellen, Gary
    • Identification of a novel factor(s) regulating listeriolysin O (LLO) expression in Listeria monocytogenes in response to serum Cornelius, Rachael PI: Higgins, Darren
    • The Role of p63 in Regulating Hair Regeneration Hanna, Yousif PI: Ellisen, Leif
    • Elucidating Mechanisms of Histone Methylation with a RNA Polymerase-Tethered Histone Lysine Methyltransferase He, Philip PI: Buratowski, Stephen
    • Investigating a rebound in Plasmodium falciparum transmission using molecular barcoding Irvine, Caleb PI: Wirth, Dyann
    • The Role of DNA Binding in the Repression of Fetal Hemoglobin by BCL11A Jean-Louis, Gaston PI: Orkin, Stuart
    • Identifying a Macrophage-dependent Mechanism of Post-extravasation Survival of Metastasized cells Pant, Ayush PI: Weinberg, Robert
    • DDX3X mutations result in a dose-dependent increase in capindependent
      protein translation in medulloblastoma Selwa, Katherine PI: Pomeroy, Scott
    • Reconstitution of HIV-1 Envelope Glycoprotein into Nanodiscs for Vaccine and Structural Studies Witt, Kristen PI: Sodroski, Joseph
  • MCB Thesis 2015
    • Interrogation of cricket germ line development by Wnt Pathway knockdown Johansson, Kimberly PI: Extavour, Cassandra
    • Investigating the functional significance of Firre in pluripotency and reprogramming Park, Daniel PI: Rinn, John
    • Investigating idic15 autism phenotype reversibility in an adult genetic rescue mouse model Silva, Michael PI: Anderson, Matthew
    • Autophagy inhibitor screen provides new drug development options and insight into pathway interactions Li, Selena PI: Yuan, Junying
    • Characterization of a putative nucleoid-associated protein, YaaK, in Bacillus subtilis Tang, Olive PI: Rudner, David
    • Combinatorial molecular labeling defines a new retinal ganglion cell type Kagan, Ruth PI: Sanes, Joshua
    • The Role of Olfactory Marker Protein (OMP) in Proper Glomerular Convergence of Olfactory Sensory Neuron Axons Agarwal, Prateek PI: Murthy, Venkatesh
    • The TRPC5 ion channel is a critical modulator of podocyte injury. Tarabanis, Constantine PI: Greka, Anna
    • Genetic Requirements for Environmental RNAi Elkington, Joshua PI: Hunter, Craig
      Analyzing Dietary Treatments for Epilepsy: From Galen to Modern Research Glasser , Rebecca PI: Yellen, Gary
    • Thioredoxin-interacting protein may cause cortical cell dysfunction in diabetes-related dementia Kushman, Arielle PI: Lee, Richard
    • Lncing RNA to FXR1: FXR1 modulates expression of Xist Quartey, Qaren PI: Vasudevan, Shoba
    • Synectin binds the Plexin D1 carboxy-terminal PDZ-binding motif and regulates Semaphorin 3E-mediated inhibition of MAPK signaling Kelly, Ryan PI: Klagsbrun, Michael
  • MCB Thesis 2014
    • Adenovirus Serotype 5 (Ad5) Versus Alternative Serotype Adenovirus Vaccine Vectors: Comparative Analysis of CD8 T Cell Responses Ra, Joshua PI: Barouch, Dan
    • Slowing Aging and Infertility with the CD38 Inhibitors Apigenin and Luteolin Simmons, Kristen PI: Sinclair, David
    • Structural Patterns of Synaptic Competition in the Motor Neuron Circuit Boothby, Ian PI: Lichtman, Jeff
    • Impact of Irregular Slee-Wake Patterns and Associated Light Exposure on Entrainment of Circadian Neuroendocrine Rhythms and Physiology in College Undergraduate Students Clerx, William PI: Czeisler, Charles
    • Structural Characterization of the SARS Translational Recoding Mechanism D’Gama, Jonathan PI: D’Souza, Victoria
    • High-throughput analysis of protein-DNA binding using next-generation sequencing Genuth, Naomi PI: Church, George
    • Exploring pathogenicity in the clinical isolate U2504 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Gorbachuk, Nataliya PI: Hung, Deborah
    • MEF2D is required for retinal photoreceptor development and regulates genes critical for proper rod architecture Lee, Charlotte PI: Greenberg, Michael
    • Investigating the Coordination of Septation and Elongation in Mycobacteria through Characterization of MSMEG_4234, a Potential Cell Division Player Leung, Vivian PI: Rubin, Eric
    • Screening and Characterization of Novel Regulators of Hepcidin Expression Volovetz, Josephine PI: Fraenkel, Paula
    • Tumor collagen and cancer-associated fibroblasts hinder cancer immunosurveillance by controlling the localization of tumor-infiltrating T cells Wu, Michael PI: Turley, Shannon
    • Engineering a Light-Sensitive Circadian Clock Yeong, Vivian PI: Silver, Pamela
      Core cellular surveillance in C. elegans is coupled to systemic xenobiotic detoxification response via bZIP transcription factor ZIP-2 and p38 MAP-kinase signaling Zhang, Xinrui PI: Ruvkun, Gary
    • Identifying Mutations That Modulate Drug Sensitivity Using Systematic Single Codon Substitution Moore, Nicholas PI: Kishony, Roy
  • MCB Thesis 2013
    • Identification of CEP-701 as a Small Molecule Regulator of Satellite Cell Proliferation through High-Content Screening Smart, Alicia PI: Rubin, Lee
    • Induction of Autoinflammatory Signaling in Genomically Unstably Cells by Perturbations in the Endogenous Nuclease DNase2 Dockterman, Jacob PI: Hacohen, Nir
    • Evaluation of small-molecules for abilities to reverse the effects of leflunomide on neural crest progenitors Xia, Fan PI: Zon, Leonard
    • Primordazine Induces Translational Repression via a 120 Nucleotide Response Element in the Zebrafish Nanos1-3’UTR Gonzales, Andrew PI: Peterson, Randell
    • Examining the mechanism by which liver-specific microRNA-122 modulates apolipoprotein B-100 Lin, Carol PI: Chung, Raymond
    • The critical role of host lipid metabolism in determining the infectivity of Hepatitis C virus Meixiong, James PI: Chung, Raymond
    • BACE, the β-secretase of Amyloid Precursor Protein-Like, is Required for Long-Term Memory in Drosophila melanogaster Liu, Carol PI: Kunes, Samuel
    • Improving the efficiency and fidelity of RNA-catalyzed polymerization: Implications for 2-thio-uracil in the RNA world Michaels, Yale PI: Szostak, Jack
    • Investigating the Mechanism of SpoIIIE Mediated End-loop Resolution in Sporulating Bacillus subtilis. Barnes, Leandra PI: Burton, Briana
    • α-secretase and γ-secretase associate together during regulated intramembrane proteolysis of APP Patel, Sarvagna) PI: Selkoe, Dennis
    • Transcriptional control of hair follicle regeneration by p63 Yarabe, Paul Ellisen, Leif
      Interactions Between Host Genetics, Host Diet, and the Gut Microbiota in Response to Diet Shifts Luevano, Jesus PI: Turnbaugh, Peter
    • Knockdown of Maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase and the Effects on Ovarian Cancer Cells in vitro: Assessing the Potential of MELK as a Therapeutic Target in Ovarian Cancer Choi, Christine PI: Zhao, Jean
    • Translation without a poly(A) tail Hadar, Peter PI: Gehrke, Lee
      Identification, sequencing and characterization of four putative systemic RNAi proteins Yao, Lisa PI: Hunter, Craig
    • The Role of Sonic Hedgehog in the Development and Maintenance of the Mammalian Olfactory System Persson, Laura PI: Segal, Rosalind
    • Effects of Translation on Mitotic Spindles Lutfeali, Reshma PI: Blower, Michael
    • The transcription factor BATF3 may be a novel regulator of angiogenesis and breast cancer progression: An in vitro and in vivo study Stein, Elliot PI: Moses, Marsha
    • The Effect of Neostriatal Dendritic and Synaptic Alternations on Glutamate Toxicity in a Huntington’s Disease Knock-in Mouse Model Lin, Amy PI: Difiglia, Marian
    • Shigella effector OspC3 enhances intracellular replication in minimally type 3 secretion competent bacteria Polachek, William PI: Lesser, Cammie
  • MCB Thesis 2012
    • Programming modification of multivalent nanoparticle surfaces with DNA Guan, Xin PI: Yin, Peng
    • The Role of in Integrins α4β1 and α4β7 in the Migration of Pathogen-Specific CD4+ T Cells to the Genital Tract of Mice Infected with Chlamydia trachomatis and Creating a CEL1 Nuclease-based Assay to Identify Null Mutants in Chlamydia trachomatis Allison, Christopher PI: Starnbach, Michael
    • A Direct Interaction between Yos9p and Hrd3p Promotes Oligomerization of a Membrane Complex Responsible for Endoplasmic Reticulum Associated Degradation of Luminal Proteins Anghel, Stefan PI: Rapoport, Tom
    • The LRP5 Pathway in Osteogenesis Imperfecta Therapeutics Barber, Lauren PI: Warman, Matt
    • p63-dependent regulation of epithelial basal cell adhesion protein genes in permissive somatic cell types Bunker, Lydia  PI: Rheinwald, James
    • MicroRNA-26b in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD): A potential regulator of cell cycle and apoptosis in post-mitotic neurons Cho, Hyunje PI: Krichevsky, Anna
    • Role of Bmi1 in Regulating Cardiac Myosin Heavy Chain Expression Dong, Xuezhi PI: Jackson-Grusby, Laurie
    • Phenotypic Analysis of Sid-3 structure and function in RNA interference Ekman, John Steven PI: Hunter, Craig
    • The Development of a Novel Inducible Foxn1 Reporter: Generation, Characterization, and Applications Feng, Jeremy PI: Melton, Doug
    • Identification and characterization of proteins required for the regulation of microtubule-based transport Heer, Natalie PI: Reck-Peterson, Sam
    • “Excitatory Projection Neurons Subtypes Controls the Distribution
      of Local Inhibitory Interneurons in the Cerebral Cortex Jantrachotechatchawan, Chanati PI: Arlotta, Paola
    • The DAQ Knight and the Secret Life of Dopamine: The Effects of Dopamine Quinone on in vitro α-synuclein Ubiquitination by Nedd4 Kogan, Edward PI: Goldberg, Alfred
    • Developing a genetic approach to induce Trichomonas Vaginalis Virus infection in T. vaginalis. Kula, Tomasz PI: Nibert, Max
    • A Real-Time, Live-Cell microRNA Reporter Library Identifies microRNA Actors in Non-Genetic
    • Drug-Resistance Networks Leya, Gregory PI: Brugge, Joan
    • Integration of the ER and Oxidative Stress Responses through SKN-1 Lin, Stephanie PI: Blackwell, Keith
    • 53BP1 Regulates the Aurora A/TPX2 Complex Luo, Yuying PI: Shi, Yang
    • Investigation of SAP-1 activity in Caenorhabditis elegans Madubata, Chinwe PI: Mango, Susan
    • Disease modeling of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): Morphometric analysis of motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells and functional characterization of astroglia derived from human embryonic stem cells Mikkilineni, Shravani PI: Eggan, Kevin
    • Translational genetic recoding by viral mRNA pseudoknots Nagle, Julia PI: D’Souza, Victoria
    • Dendritic Cell Immunoreceptor (DCIR) silencing using CD4 aptamer-DCIR siRNA chimeras:a model to investigate mucosal transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Onofrey, Lauren PI: Lieberman, Judy
    • Understanding the biological risk of chromosome 4 locus triplication for Parkinson’s Disease Perez-Torres, Eduardo PI: Isacson, Ole
    • Characterization of Dysfunctional Mitochondrial Stress Response in Parkinson’s Disease Prager, Briana PI: Isacson, Ole
    • The Search for Novel Sporulation Genes in Bacillus subtilis Pugliese, Antonia PI: Losick, Richard
    • Effects of the Loss of Red-Cone Photoreceptors on Cone Mosaic Formation and Horizontal Cell Morphology in Zebrafish (Danio rerio). Qi, Robert PI: Dowling, John
    • Revealing Downstream Effectors of the Target of Rapamycin Complex 2 (TORC2) Pathway Using RNAi and Lifespan Analysis: An examination of different Caenorhabditis elegans phenotypes Runcie, Mariama PI: Soukas, Alexander
    • Investigating small molecules that bind p16INK4a and their effects on cellular senescence Sandler, Jason PI: Shaw, Stanley
    • Targeting Casein Kinase 1 and 2 to inhibit invasion of red blood cells by the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum Sarma, Nandini PI: Duraisingh, Manoj
    • Developmental Basis of Craniofacial Variation in Anolis Carolinensis Seav, Susan PI: Abzhanov, Arkhat
    • A Split-Intein Based Approach to Protein Sensing in Mammalian Cells Selgrade, Daniel PI: Silver, Pamela
    • Probing functional consequences of the lprG/Rv1410c double knockout in Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin Sullivan, Zuri PI: Rubin, Eric
    • Identification of immunogenic Salmonella enterica serotype Paratyphi A proteins uniquely expressed in humans and not under standard laboratory conditions Tsai, Lillian PI: Ryan, Edward
    • The role of Protein Phosphatase 2A in HIV-Specific Human T Cell Dysfunction Virgin-Downey, Herbert PI: Kaufmann, Daniel
    • Netrin-1 Promotes Glioblastoma Invasion and Angiogenesis Through a Cathepsin B-Dependent Mechanism Wang, Priscilla PI: Klagsbrun, Michael
    • Translational Frameshifting in Trichomonas Vaginalis Virus Wang, Shitong PI: Nibert, Max
    • CD1 Modulation of Decidual Immune Cell Activity Wu, Vernon PI: Strominger, Jack
    • A STAT3-iNOS Pathway Drives Malignancy in EGFRvIII-Activated Glioma Yeung, Caleb PI: Bonni, Azad
    • Functional Characterization of the NOD-like receptor NLRC3 in T Cell Activation Zhang, Chi PI: Kobayashi, Koichi
    • Lipid Composition Dependence and Hemifusion in Atlastin-Mediated Homotypic Membrane Fusion Zhou, Wenchi PI: Rapoport, Tom
    • Expression and Function of the Mammalian SID-1 Orthologs, SidT1 and SidT2 Song, Fei PI: Hunter, Craig
    • Characterizing the role of SERBP1 and Serpine1 in regulating Th1 cell-driven autoimmune disease Chen, Andrew PI: Kuchroo, Vijay
    • Mechanisms of Immune Control of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Absence of Protective HLA Class I Alleles Sierra-Davidson, Kailan PI: Walker, Bruce
    • Determining the Mechanism of Action of R7, A Small Molecule Inhibitor of the Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C) Zhao, Lillian PI: King, Randall
    • Embryonic Stem Cells Can Reconstitute the Epigenetic Landscape of H3K27me3 with High Fidelity after Global Erasure Mi, Xiaoli PI: Meissner, Alex
    • Spatial and Temporal Regulation of Genetic Diversity in Mycobacteria
      Ragheb, Mark PI: Fortune, Sarah
  • MCB Thesis 2011
    • The Hippo Pathway in Human Embryonic Stem Cells and Endodermal Progenitors Arledge, Walker (Cole) PI: Melton, Doug