I worked with Dr. Blackburn this summer through the Markey STRONG program. My project’s scope focused primarily on the radioresistance associated with missense mutations in TP53, and how those mutations (uniquely) collaborate with the H3K27M mutation found in 80% of children with DIPG. We investigated this relationship within zebrafish (WT + p53 knockout) models as…

This summer, I had the opportunity to work in the Blackburn Lab through the Kentucky INBRE Summer Research Program. I investigated Deferoxamine as a drug therapy to prevent relapse in patients with T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. It was an invaluable learning experience to run RT-PCRs, cell cycle analyses in the FACS Core, and experiments in…

In October 2023 me and Jessi had the chance to go to Durham-North Carolina to attend the 16th Zebrafish Disease Models Society annual meeting. This meeting brings together researchers using zebrafish to model different human diseases. Research findings from the fields of cancer, skeletal muscle diseases, inflammation, gastrointestinal diseases and others were presented. Presenters shared…