I am a third year undergraduate student from New Jersey studying Chemical Biology and Spanish. One of the primary reasons I came to CWRU was all of the innovative research opportunities made available to undergraduate students. I started out working at the CWRU Transgenic core, where I gained experience with mouse work and mouse genetics. Coming to the Atit Lab, I had an interest in skin disorders as my brother was diagnosed with alopecia areata at a young age. Because of this, I have been able to attend a few dermatology conferences, which has fostered my interest in other autoimmune skin disorders, such as scleroderma. I greatly enjoy working in the Atit Lab due to the welcoming environment, collaborative nature, and great mentorship from Dr. Atit and the PhD students. Outside of the lab, I enjoy hiking, traveling, and going to museums!
My Project
Skin fibrosis is dermal thickening that results in excessive scarring of the skin. This dermal thickening is characterized by fibroblast activation, increased extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition, and the loss of dermal fat (adipocytes). The project I work on studies the role of Wnt signaling, a pro-fibrotic signaling pathway, in this intradermal adipocyte loss and, more generally, dermal fibrosis. I focus on the staining and quantification of ECM components such as proteoglycans, which are diverse glycosylated proteins, that are impacted by the onset and reversal of dermal fibrosis.
21d βcatistab dorsal dermis stained with Picrosirius Red, Alcian Blue, and Fast Green (RGB Trichrome).
21d βcatistab dorsal dermis stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E).
The day I did a 7 hour hike of the Tystig Glacier in Norway (2019).