Bio
Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Beckman Scholars Program Project Title: “Investigating Methods and Mechanisms of Oligodendrocyte Restoration in Hypoxia-Induced White Matter Injury.”
Mentor: Drew Adams, Department of Genetics and Genome Science at the School of Medicine
Beckman Scholars Program Project Details
Elevator Speech
Myelin is essential for efficient communication in the central nervous system, but its formation is significantly hindered in low-oxygen conditions. I am interested in more precisely understanding how oxygen deprivation makes myelin unable to form from its precursor cells as well as identifying chemical compounds that can overcome this blockage.
Reflection
"I enjoyed working full time in my lab very much, and stayed on campus for the whole duration of the summer. In addition to having the opportunity to learn and help introduce new techniques into our lab, working full time allowed me to fill in the gaps of my understanding of our lab’s work. I would absolutely recommend a summer research experience to any aspiring scientist because the additional time spent in the lab results in an exponential increase in understanding and skill. The most important takeaway I experienced was how to navigate setbacks and failures. Obtaining inexplicable results and negotiating through the unknown and unexpected nature of hypothesis-driven research was uncomfortable and humbling, helping to paint a more realistic picture of the challenges of science."
Presentations
- Investigating the Mechanisms of Oligodendrocyte Restoration in Hypoxia-Induced White Matter Injury (August 2019): Invited student speaker at the Beckman Symposium
- Investigating the Mechanisms of Oligodendrocyte Restoration in Hypoxia-Induced White Matter Injury (April 2019); First Place in the Michelson Morley Research Competition in the Biological Sciences (Case Western Reserve University)
- Investigating the Mechanisms of Oligodendrocyte Damage in Hypoxia-Induced White Matter Injury (December 2018); First Place Poster Prize in Life Sciences at Intersections: SOURCE Symposium (Case Western Reserve University)
Publications
- Allan KC, Hu LR, Morton AR, Scavuzzo MA, et al. (2021) Non-canonical targets of HIF1a drive cell-type-specific dysfunction. Cell Stem Cell; S1934-5909(20)30494-X. PMID: 33091368.
- Factor DC, Barbeau AM, Allan KC, Hu LR, et al. (2020) Cell type specificity of intralocus interactions reveals oligodendrocyte intrinsic mechanisms for multiple sclerosis. Cell; 181(2):382-395.e21. PMID: 32246942.
Honors and Awards
- 2021 FAER MSARF Research Award (Anesthesia Summer Research Fellowship) and matched with Outcomes Research at CCF and funded by the 2021 Drs. Ximena and Daniel Sessler Medical Student Research Fellow Award.
- 2019, Invited as a student speaker at the Beckman Symposium
- 2019, Michelson Morley Research Competition Awardee, which is CWRU’s most prestigious research award for the biological sciences.