Esha Srinivasan
I am Esha Srinivasan and I am currently a rising sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in biochemistry and minoring in music. My after college plans include veterinary school and maybe a PhD! I am originally from North Carolina, but I was lucky enough to do in person research in Philadelphia this summer. Considering the current global health situation, I wanted to take the opportunity of studying infectious pathogens and how they affect the body and the environment. Fittingly, I was thrilled to participate in Dr. Katharine Bar’s translational human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) research this summer.
My summer project sought to understand how HIV evolves in response to treatments and the body’s immune system. The viral RNA from the plasma samples of 13 animals was sequenced at three different time points. Because of HIV’s ability to genetically recombine and its inconsistency in replication, sequence changes can help the virus evade the body’s natural immune response. These changes of the HIV sequence can be monitored over time. Specific ambiguities in the sequences that we find can be used to figure out which parts of the genome are changing the most and potentially how to target them.
I am so grateful for learning the skills of genome sequencing this summer. Though the process of sequencing included a lot of mixing small volumes of liquids together, it was fascinating that I was able to analyze the viruses in the plasma samples and ultimately look at each little nucleotide in their sequences. This summer taught me how smart HIV is and how important, yet arduous, the battle to find a cure or prevention for HIV truly is.
Meg Gladieux
Hi! My name is Meg Gladieux and I am from Lynchburg, Virginia, a small city in the central Blue Ridge Mountains region of the state. I am going into my third year at Penn and I am a double major in Cognitive Science and French and Francophone studies. Within cognitive science, I am concentrating in cognitive neuroscience with a particular focus on developmental neuroscience. I am broadly interested in how environments shape cognition, particularly in early parts of life during key developmental stages and implications for education, mental health, and children’s overall well-being.
This summer, I worked with Dr. Jianghong Liu (PhD, RN, FAAN), who is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and whose research focuses on early exposures and their effects on children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes, particularly in community samples. Within CEET, he works primarily within the Environmental Neuroscience and Community Engagement cores. This summer I contributed to several ongoing projects, but my focus was on literature searches regarding the intersections between exposure to environmental toxicity and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). My project focused on cumulative effects of toxicity in the environment and social disadvantage for children’s cognitive health and development.
Sophia Zhu
I am a rising senior in the College studying Earth Science and Chemistry. This past summer I participated in STEER remotely from my hometown of Encinitas, California, working with Dr. Wei-Ting Hwang.
My research project topic arose from the growing severity and frequency of climate-change-driven wildfires all around the world. I took publicly available data files on wildfires and air pollution, and analysed their relationship with mental health in the state of California, to see if areas (counties) with higher fire risk and air pollution variables were also reporting worse mental health outcomes. I found that this was generally true, and the relationship was stronger when the data was adjusted for demographic variables such as poverty level and education.
At the conclusion of the program, I was definitely more interested in environmental health, and especially in the implications of these types of projects in tracking and improving the health of climate refugees during current and future environmental events.
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Henry Nick
My name is Henry Nick, and I am from Chappaqua, New York. I am a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in neuroscience and minoring in health care management and sociology. Through STEER, I was lucky to be introduced to Dr. Sigrid Veasey and the staff in her lab. Under their mentorship, I had the opportunity to determine if sleep fragmentation causes an enhanced proinflammatory response in brains when orexinergic neurons – neurons that determine whether an animal should be asleep or awake – are knocked out. Sleep fragmentation occurs when there are frequent, abnormal awakenings during the sleep-wake cycle. It can be caused by excessive noise or light, which affects the circadian rhythms, and is especially common in more densely populated inner city environments. Previous studies from this lab have correlated increased sleep fragmentation and lead toxicity – two environmental effects – with injury of orexinergic neurons and microglia, so I decided to analyze research if the loss of orexinergic neurons imposes inflammation or injury to the brain, specifically the hippocampus. By analyzing mouse brains in four different categories – with or without orexinergic neurons and with or without sleep fragmentation – I was able to show that sleep fragmentation mice without orexin have a compounded effect on brain injury compared to just sleep fragmented mice and just orexin knockout mice.
Eric Gao
My name is Eric Gao and I am a rising sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. I am currently majoring in biochemistry and am a member of the Vagelos Molecular Life Sciences program. This summer I worked with Dr. Axelsen who studies the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease. Alzheimer’s Disease has many environmental ties as our diets and exposure to toxins outdoors possibly play roles in its development. The STEER program has been an enriching experience this summer, teaching me about a variety of environmental issues alongside various aspects, such as the ethics, of research. I am looking forward to utilizing this information as I continue to conduct research and become involved in environmental activities at UPenn and the surrounding community.
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Ali Hamandi
My name is Ali Hamandi and I’m currently a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a major in neuroscience and a minor in chemistry. I was made aware of CEET’s STEER program through correspondence with Penn faculty and applied with the intention of researching the impact of various environmental factors on cognitive function. Through STEER, I was assigned to Dr. Shen’s lab at the Perelman School of Medicine and worked on the interactions between environmental and genotypic factors on the development of Alzheimer’s Disease. Looking ahead, I intend on continuing my work in the Shen Lab into the school year and developing my research beyond my time as an undergraduate.
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Dade Ogunmuyiwa
My name is Dade Ogunmuyiwa and I am a rising sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. I am double majoring in HSOC and computer and information sciences. This summer I had the opportunity to work in the Axelsen lab as a research fellow.
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Sheil Desai
My name is Sheil and I am a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Politics, Philosophy, & Economics with an intended minor in Environmental Studies and Chemistry.
This summer I worked on research with Dr. Himes to investigate the effects of the 2019 Philadelphia Energy Solutions Oil refinery explosion and closure. The refinery was considered the city’s biggest stationary source of air pollution and a notorious toxic emitter. On June 21st, 2019 a corroded pipe led to a fire which resulted in a massive explosion. The facility leaked hazardous chemicals into the surrounding Greys Ferry neighborhood in South Philadelphia, where many residents reported feeling sick in the coming days. Soon after, the refinery was permanently closed.
Working with Dr. Himes, we used EPA data to track and visualize PM2.5, SO2, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the neighborhood before and after the refinery was closed. I learned and used R for most of the analysis we performed and became proficient by the end of the summer. We created several statistical models and found there was a correlation between the closure of the refinery changes in pollutant levels. However, the correlation was the opposite of what we had been expecting: pollutant concentrations increased despite the closure of a major refinery.
I learned a lot through the research process and hope to make our findings available to the residents of Philadelphia. I also hope that my work brings attention to issues like the lack of sufficient publicly available air quality monitoring data in the city.