Temple University

Scholars

2020 - 2022 MARC 1 Scholars NOW MARC Alumni

GUERCIE GUERRIER College of Science & Technology BA. Biology Sociology of Health minor RESEARCH MENTORS: (1) Dr. Xavier Graña-Amat. Prof, Cancer & Cellular Biology; Prof. Fels Cancer Inst. for Personalized Medicine; Prof., Medical Genetics & Mol.Biochemistry; Prof., Biomedical Education and Data Science. TU Lewis Katz School of Medicine (2) Dr. Grace X. Ma - Associate Dean for Health Disparities, Founding Director of Center for Asian Health, Laura H. Carnell Professor Lewis Katz School of Medicine, TU and Primary Member of Fox Chase Cancer Center of TU Health System

ALIYAH ST JOHN College of Engineering BS Bioengineering Concentration: Engineering Devices Research Mentors: Drs. Michel Lemay & Andrew Spence. Temple University Bioengineering Dept. Dr. Daniel Jacobs. Temple University Mechanical Engineering Dept. Robotics in Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RISE) Lab Dr. Ahyeon Koh. SUNY Binghamton Biomedical Engineering Dept. Su2021. CURRENTLY MASTERS STUDENT - SYSTEMS DESIGN PENN STATE U and

SHAKIRAH COOPER College of Science and Technology BS Computer Sciences Research Mentors: Dr. Slobodan Vucetic, Director, Center for Hybrid Intelligence (CHI) (former Center for Cognitive Computing). Professor, Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS), Temple University Dr. Keith E. Cook, David Edward Schramm Professor, Head Department of Biomedical Engineering Carnegie Mellon University Dr. Tamer Aldwairi – Assistant Professor (Instruction) Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS), Temple University, CURRENTLY. MASTERS STUDENT. CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY.

2021 MARC SCHOLARS now MARC

I am Nylani Powell. I grew up in York, Pennsylvania, where I went to Dallastown High School. Once I graduated, I found my home at Temple University in the Health Professions major with a Spanish minor. My interest in the medical field stems from my mother, who is a registered nurse. From there, my aspirations of helping others blossomed. The MARC program has made an immense impact on my life thus far. Besides financial support, this program has helped to broaden my way of thinking both personally and professionally. Also, I have entered a network of kindhearted people whom I can turn to if needed. As a MARC scholar, I am working with Drs. Gretchen Snethen and Bryan McCormick in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Temple University. Some projects I am involved with are Parenting Through Leisure (PTL), Enriching Environments, and Cities Changing Diabetes. PTL is a project aimed at creating an intervention that will enhance parenting outcomes for people with serious mental illnesses. Next, the Enriching Environments project targets applications to help gain community inclusion for people with serious mental illnesses or disabilities. Lastly, the Cities Changing Diabetes project aims to create an intervention to reduce the impact of diabetes among people living with disabilities with the help of the mainstream community and providers. In the future, I plan to become a pediatrician at a children’s hospital. After I graduate, I intend to pursue my education at an MD/Ph.D. program. Outside of school, I enjoy babysitting children, frequenting cafés, and running at the park. I enjoy reading, watching Netflix, and taking a self-care day for relaxation. I am overwhelmed with joy when I think about my journey with the MARC program. I hope that others can experience similar feelings.

I am Magdalena Gareca. I am from Allentown, Pennsylvania and went to Parkland High School. I’ve always had a forever interest in science, but I first discovered the importance of public health when I created a documentary on the history of medical ethics for a class assignment. After learning about the cruel studies and mistreatment of human participants in the name of science, I decided to keep social justice at the forefront of my scientific career. Luckily, public health is the perfect field for these two topics to intersect and I cannot wait to see my scientific research better the lives of the communities around me! When I applied for the MARC scholar program, I never could have imagined how much more than a research opportunity it truly is! In only a few short months, MARC has provided me thorough professional and personal development in regards to becoming a well rounded, curious, and resilient scientist. It has given me the confidence to ask questions, voice my thoughts, and trust that I can handle any obstacle that comes my way. I have completed research in the Temple Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health- Behavioral and Cancer Epidemiology Research Program. PI: Dr . Resa Jones This summer, Dr. Jones and I worked on a grant founded by the Water Foundation in collaboration with the BuxMont Coalition for Safer Water, a local organization. I focused on the research question “What are the perceived impacts of PFAS-contaminated water on financial, psychosocial, and health among community residents of Bucks and Montgomery Counties?” and over the past months, I have created qualitative codes and conducted the qualitative data analysis of the focus group transcripts (n=6) through DEDOOSE software. Looking towards the future, I hope to get a graduate degree in biomedical ethics and use it to conduct safe and informative research on addiction and those with substance use disorders. Another career goal I have is to provide medical aid and disaster relief abroad, perhaps as an Epidemiologist or Infection, Prevention, and Control (IPC) manager through Doctors Without Borders. When I’m not in the lab, I love to go hiking and swimming outside! I also love music festivals, yoga, and trying to dance bachata---poorly.

I am Alexander Armstead. Since joining Dr. Soboloff's lab in August 2020, I have played a role in a project revolving around SOCE, leading to metabolic shifts towards biosynthesis in invasive melanoma cells. I plan to continue working on this project, which is very close to being publication ready, and start working on a new project based on the current findings. Under the guidance of Dr. Soboloff and working closely with my graduate student mentor, I propose to define the differences in metabolism between invasive and non-invasive cells by labeling them with C13-glucose and identifying which pathways are changed through mass spectrometry. The contribution of glycosylation to invasiveness will be tracked using genetic and pharmacological manipulations of OGT, the enzyme that drives this change. We are particularly interested in well-known glycosylated proteins known to serve as oncogenes such as Snai1, Snai2, YAP, but recognize that this experiment may reveal new targets, with important implications to the design of therapeutic interventions for the treatment of melanoma. My personal goals during this time are to continue to expand my knowledge of calcium signaling, learn new lab techniques, and gain more autonomy (as I'm already well-versed with my current lab). My professional goal for the next year is to generate substantial concrete data that will improve the current manuscript and to contribute to an additional publication-worthy manuscript, hopefully with a greater personal contribution.

I am Naomi Ross. I am from Aurora, Colorado and went to Grandview High School. I came to Temple in the fall of 2019 to join the women’s fencing team and study biophysics. I chose biophysics simply because it sounded interesting and the classes I would have all seemed like topics I would enjoy taking. Being a MARC scholar has given me a strong path towards graduate school and earning a PhD in the future. MARC is a unique program that provides an opportunity to do long term undergraduate research as well as prepare students for a PhD. There are very few programs that could provide these opportunities as well as support throughout my academic career and be willing to invest the time and effort into my education. I am researching under Dr. Eric Borguet in the chemistry department at Temple University. Part of his work focuses on non-linear spectroscopy using techniques such as sum-frequency generation. Currently I have been assisting graduate students in their research as well as being introduced to different methods used in non-linear spectroscopy in order to prepare for completing a research project of my own in the future. I am also a Division 1 athlete on Temple’s women’s fencing team. Fencing is a large part of my time here at Temple and the team of people within MARC have been very supportive with me dividing my time between classes, practice, and research

I am Edmee Brown-Egue a Ghanian-American from Washington, DC, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson HS. I am a bioengineering major with a concentration in engineering devices. My reason for selecting this major was based on my interest in medicine and using creative and innovative thinking to solve problems. The MARC program has extended opportunities for me not only to be involved in a lab but to gain professional as well as personal development. The research I am currently working on is with Dr. Christopher K. Thompson in the spinal neuromotor laboratory. We are analyzing the temporal characteristics of neuron excitability by looking at the history-dependent changes in humans. My future career objectives include pursuing an MD/Ph.D. in bioengineering, then potentially working for a medical devices company. In my free time, I enough working out and going out with friends to get something to eat.