Biography:
I have a big family that is originally from Ethiopia but I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. In my free time, I enjoy singing for fun, listening to music while painting, exploring Boulder’s beautiful mountains, running/planning a service organization I created with my best friend, and spending quality time with loved ones. My dream is to one day become a pediatrician and conduct research of my own.
Research:
The goal is to investigate the role of basal stem cells (BC) in remodeled cystic fibrosis (CF) airway epithelia, which have defective regeneration and decreased ciliated cell presence. We hypothesize that defects in BC population contribute to dysfunction. We used flow cytometry to characterize BCs in healthy and CF airway epithelia based on the expression of known antibody markers. We found consistent differences in expression between the tested populations, which may account for remodeling. Next we generated lentiviral constructs containing the MCIDAS transcriptional activator. After antibiotic selection of infected airway cells, we found a substantial expansion of ciliated cells for the MCIDAS construct and no ciliated cells for a mutant MCIDAS construct. Serving as a foundation for future investigation in ciliated cell restoration in CF airways. This research was conducted in the Vladar Lab of the Pulmonary Division of Research Complex Two on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Research Faculty Mentor:
Eszter Vladar, PhD, Assistant Professor
Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine