Featured Posters
This portion of my E-portfolio showcases posters that communicate detailed research through compelling and informative visuals. Included are two undergraduate group projects: one on the potential use of engineered cardiac organoids for developing regenerative therapies, and another examining Centropogon cornutus flower curvature across Neotropical bioregions. The final poster from my R&D internship was presented at the 2024 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting and Exhibit. Each poster demonstrates my ability to distill complex data into visually engaging figures that, along with concise language, effectively convey scientific insights.
Engineering hPSC-derived Cardiac Organoids to Model Cardiac Tissue and Drug Responses
BE 4335: Tissue Engineering
Group project with Raymond Martin and Mary Margaret Werther
In this project, our team explored the use of engineered human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac organoids to advance cardiac tissue modeling and tissue regeneration. The assignment required us to conduct an extensive literature review, identify common themes across various regenerative medicine studies, and synthesize findings from multiple studies. Our greatest challenge was narrowing down the scope of our argument to identify and effectively combine relevant sources. I played a central role in curating research articles using similar cell lines, assays, and innovative engineering techniques as we decided to emphasize strategies employing biomaterial integration, unique culture methods, and computational analysis. From these, I organized figures, annotated key findings, and selected the most informative and comparable figures to craft the "Methods to create hCOs" and "Using hCOs for functional recovery" sections. Our e-poster effectively integrated findings across multiple studies, illustrating how cardiac organoids can serve as innovative tools for disease modeling, drug screening, and potential therapeutic treatments in cardiac regenerative medicine.
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Fun fact: Our poster was one of few deemed "Exceptional" by the professor, earning my team and me the only A+ in the class.
Lack of climate's influence on the degree curvature of Centropogon cornutus across Neotropical bioregions
BIOL 1209: Biology Laboratory for Science Majors II
Group project with Amelia Haydel and Sebastian Magee
In this Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) course, my group and I investigated the influence of climate on the petal curvature of Centropogon cornutus, a flowering plant species distributed widely across the Neotropics. Using scanned herbarium specimens, we measured the degree of petal curvature using ImageJ to analyze correlations with temperature and precipitation data across various bioregions. Our findings showed no significant climatic effect on curvature, which suggests that other factors such as genetics or pollinator interactions contribute to this species' adaptability across different environments. I took the lead on writing the "Introduction" and "Research Questions/Hypotheses" sections, ensuring they clearly presented our study's purpose. I also analyzed a portion of the herbarium specimens to contribute to the data analysis using JMP. This project gave me valuable hands-on experience in ecological data collection, ImageJ measurement techniques, and biodiversity research methods.
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Fun fact: Our instructor enjoyed our poster presentation so much that she selected our group to represent the class at LSU's CURE poster session. I had to miss the session because I was traveling with LSU Tiger Band to perform at the LSU vs. Georgia 2022 SEC Championship Game, but this was still an exciting opportunity for our group!
Optimization of Cryomill Settings to Create Extrudable Porcine Soft Tissue Particulate
Research and Development Internship with Tides Medical, LLC
under the mentorship of Larry Stevens, Dr. Babak Safavieh, and Dr. Mora Melican
During my summer 2024 internship, I explored the effects of various processing parameters on generating micronized powders from freeze-dried placental tissues. As I familiarized myself with the cryomill, I first conducted experiments using porcine small intestinal submucosa (SIS) as a proxy material. I varied parameters of liquid-nitrogen pre-cooling time, milling duration, and grinding ball selection to assess their impact on the extrudability of resuspended powder through a 25-gauge needle. As I transitioned to working with placental tissues, I authored an abstract to submit my porcine SIS work to the 2024 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting and Exhibit in Boston, Massachusetts. My abstract was accepted for a poster presentation, and I collaborated with my my mentor Larry Stevens to develop our poster. I wrote the "Introduction" and "Materials and Methods" sections of the poster, and I performed most of the sample processing - from loading grafts into grinding jars to recovering and resuspending the particulate - before I returned to LSU for my senior year. Unfortunately, the results from the particle size analysis were unavailable until after I transitioned into my current role as a virtual, part-time intern, but I've had the opportunity to carry our findings into my current project with Tides Medical exploring milling processes of more placental tissue types. ​​
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Fun Fact: Dr. Mora Melican, then-Vice President of Research and Clinical Development, was in Lafayette when I wrote the application abstract, and she personally gave me a compliment on my work!