DOCTORAL
CANDIDATES
Background
In May 2024, I earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Biomedical Engineering specializing in cellular bioengineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. My growing interest in stem cells and regenerative medicine led me to join Dr. Peter Zandstra's Stem Cell Bioengineering Lab at UBC, where I worked on a project exploring how sex-biased human thymic architecture guides T cell development. Concurrently, I also contributed to a project identifying gene regulatory networks essential for T cell and haematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) emergence from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Through this experience, I analyzed single cell multiomics data to identify gene markers and cell-cell interactions that promote HSPC development.
In January 2023, I became a research assistant at Dr. Timm Schroeder’s Cell Systems Dynamics Group at ETH Zürich, investigating AKT signaling dynamics in myeloproliferative neoplasms and enhancing my skills in live cell microscopy and mouse work.
By June 2023, I returned to the Stem Cell Bioengineering Lab to study T cell receptors (TCRs) present on in vitro T cells differentiated from hPSCs in our system. Later, in the final year of my bachelor's, I conducted a project focused on bioinformatics under the supervision of Dr. Marco Marra that examined the non-malignant immune system co-evolution with the tumor microenvironment in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia.
Through these experiences, I gained expertise in single-cell multiomic analysis, hematopoietic stem cell isolation, flow cytometry, cell culture, live cell imaging, and T cell development. I also further developed my scientific communication skills through my involvement in a publication from the Stem Cell Bioengineering Lab (in preprint: DOI:10.1101/2023.04.13.536804) and a rapid-fire talk on my work on TCRs at the BC Regenerative Medicine Conference in October 2023.
Research
In October 2024, I joined the Epigenetic control of haematopoiesis group to conduct my PhD under the supervision of Dr. José Luis Sardina at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC). My project will focus on further elucidating the role of TET2 enzymes in the onset presentation of the Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) phenotype in NFkB-mutated patients.