Explorer Categories: Bioengineering; Biology

My name is Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna and I am a 4th year MD-PhD Student in Bioengineering at UCSF and UC Berkeley. I am originally from Long Island, NY, and studied Bioengineering at Harvard. I am passionate about building diagnostics and health monitoring tools to promote the health and well-being of individuals in America and abroad. I am proudly Nigerian-American, and I enjoy listening to and dancing to Afrobeats, traveling to learn about and experience new cultures, and trying new cuisines in my free time.

I am a senior studying Bioengineering at UC Berkeley, where I am an undergraduate researcher in the Clark Lab under Dr. Iain Clark and graduate mentor Kevin Joslin. My work focuses on genetically engineering natural killer cells, a specialized type of immune cell, using CRISPR-based tools to better understand the molecular pathways that govern immune cell interactions and cytotoxicity. By improving how we study and manipulate NK cells, this research aims to support the development of more effective, targeted cancer immunotherapies. I’m passionate about advancing health equity by connecting scientific research, patient care, and access to innovative treatments. Originally, I’m from Los Angeles, and outside of research, I enjoy playing volleyball, baking, and volunteering at a local animal shelter.

I am a second-year PhD student from Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) advised by Dr. Allon Wagner. I grew up in Chengdu, a city in southwest China and studied chemistry and statistics for my undergrad at Carleton College. My current research focuses on understanding the effects of chronic stress on different regions and cell types of the brain using single cell omics data to computationally identify new therapeutic targets for depression treatment. Outside research, I enjoy climbing, hiking with my dog Jojo and traveling.

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Science & Technology, specializing in Molecular Cell Biomechanics and Computational Biophysics. I earned my undergraduate degree in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley in 2021, after transferring from Santa Rosa Junior College. My research focuses on how cells sense and transmit mechanical forces through the LINC complex, and how membrane remodeling is regulated by curvature-sensing proteins such as those in the BAR domain family. Combining molecular simulations with experimental insights, I investigate how nanoscale structural dynamics influence cellular architecture and function. Originally from Togo, I bring a multidisciplinary and global perspective to my work. I am passionate about translating fundamental scientific discoveries into advances in health and biotechnology, and I am eager to contribute to solutions that connect molecular mechanisms with real-world impact.

April received her double bachelor’s degrees in Bioengineering and Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She is currently a Bioengineering PhD student in the Joint Graduate Program at UC Berkeley/UCSF, and works on MR spectroscopy in neurological disorders and hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI in patients with brain tumors.

I am a 3rd year PhD student in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Program in Bioengineering and an NIH T32 Predoctoral Fellow deeply interested in uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying diseases and cancers of the central nervous system. In Dr. Iain Clark’s lab at UC Berkeley, I develop and utilize high-throughput single-cell genomic and transcriptomic technologies to investigate cellular heterogeneity, gene regulation, and cell-cell interactions in the brain. I was born and raised in Honolulu, HI and earned my B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University in 2023. Outside of research, I spend the majority of my free time playing competitive ultimate frisbee.

With a background in molecular and cell biology, particularly in biophysics, I am passionate about advancing our understanding of breast cancer development and the nature of cells in breast tissue. Working in a mechanical engineering lab allows me to leverage interdisciplinary tools to further this exploration, and I am excited about the opportunity to deepen my knowledge this semester. My ultimate goal in this program is to contribute to the collective progress in medical research.

I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at Berkeley studying Bioengineering. My research has focused on DNA cell patterning, which involves creating precise DNA arrangements on surfaces to direct the placement and growth of cells, including cancer cells. By using photopatterning and chemical conjugation techniques, I can control cell placement at a microscale. This technique allows for the study of cell behaviors, interactions, and responses in environments that mimic tumor microenvironments. In my research, I use DNA cell patterning to observe how breast cancer cells interact with their surroundings, which is crucial for understanding cancer progression, metastasis, and treatment responses. By analyzing these interactions, I aim to uncover insights into cancer dynamics that could inform future therapies.

I am a PhD candidate in bioengineering and computational biology, working at the intersection of multimodal epigenetic measurement technologies and neural network models to predict gene expression. Eukaryotic gene regulation is driven by the DNA sequence of the genome in interaction with multiple layers of complex epigenetic state. I am building computational tools to help measure, model, and understand this regulatory grammar, ranging from long read sequencing data processing to CNN and transformer models trained with new epigenetic data. A better understanding of the driving forces of gene expression and its dysregulation can be used for applications ranging from disease screening to target identification for new therapeutic modalities.