Lu Lab, MIT Synthetic Biology Center

*Undergraduate Researcher, April 2021 - Current

My Project:

Most miRNA-RNA target interactions involve the miRNA inducing the degradation or repression of its RNA target. However, extensive complementarity between the miRNA and target can lead to target-directed miRNA degradation (TDMD) where the miRNA is degraded instead. Little is known about the exact mechanism of this interaction.

My Role:

In my senior thesis, I designed an original experimental plan to investigate the regulation of microRNAs in TDMD. I performed a CRISPR knock-in of synthetic microRNA libraries into mammalian cell lines and quantified their expression levels over time with northern blot and small RNA sequencing.

Skills Developed:​

• Experimental design and problem solving
• Mammalian cell culture, molecular cloning, CRISPR, northern blot
• Design and development of novel analysis pipelines for RNA sequencing data
• Scientific writing and oral presentation