Home of the Blue Devils, Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.

Activities: Duke Lab of NeuroGenetics Researcher, Hoyle Psych & Neuroscience Lab Researcher, Me Too Monologues, All of the Above Monologues, Small Town Records, Blue Devils United, Pi Beta Phi Sorority, DJ at WXDU Radio, LDOC Committee, Campus Tour Guide, Project PWAVES orientation program Staff, Undergraduate Neuroscience Major's Union member

The Singapore American School is a private school in Singapore. Established in 1956, the school offers an American-based curriculum from preschool through to Grade 12 for approximately 3,800 expatriate students, making it the largest international school in the world. Approximately two-thirds of the students at SAS are United States citizens, with the rest of the student body comprising more than 50 nationalities. Few Singaporean students attend the school as Singapore government regulations prevent most local students from attending international schools within the country.Academically, SAS has the largest number of high school students enrolled in Advanced Placement Program courses of any international school in the world, delivering 29 AP courses as an integral part of high school course options.SAS has a strong athletic tradition. It is part of the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools , providing SAS students with the opportunity to compete regularly with other international schools in the region in both academic and sports events. Such competitions and conventions include Model United Nations, the arts, and a host of sports such as swimming, cross country, and basketball. The school has a student newspaper, The Eye, which has won the Columbia Gold Crown award multiple times, as well as other rewards from the National Scholastic Press Association.SAS is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in the United States.The Good Schools Guide International reviewed the school as "an extremely spacious school for Singapore with wonderful, modern facilities, strong academics, and a plethora of options within the curriculum and extracurricular program".

Activities: President of Executive Community Service Council, President of Habitat for Humanity, President of Thespian Society, Director/Producer/Actor for Theatre Department, member of National Honor Society, member of Spanish Honor Society

       Headed by Dr. John Pearson, the Duke Pearson Lab conducts research in computational neuroscience ranging from behavioral modeling using deep neural networks, to human intraoperative, multi-electrode recordings and analyses. My work with the Pearson Lab provided generous experience in computationally tackling big data, a regular chance for patient interaction, and the opportunity to take ownership over the full research process, from the initial experimental design, through the data collection, to the subsequent data analysis.

       Over the past year I collected all human-subject data accrued through the lab’s two unique patient populations at the Duke University Hospital. Parkinson’s patients undergoing implantation of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) participate in intraoperative tasks aimed at gaining a better understanding of the involvement of the sub thalamic nucleus (STN) in impulsivity, conflict, and motivation. Epilepsy patients being considered for surgical resection of their epileptic focus are implanted with electrocorticography (ECog) grids to characterize and localize seizure activity, allowing our lab to conduct neurological research paradigms (including a theory of mind battery and a competitive game task), while collecting multi-electrode recordings of neural activity.

       Additionally, I gained proficiency in coding in Python, a skill which I apply to both experimental design and data analysis. In our most recent project, a colleague and myself designed a dot-discrimination task, to be completed intraoperatively by Parkinson’s patients; after being primed with visual cues corresponding to the task’s varying levels of difficulty, patients are asked to discriminate directionality between several different coherences of dots on a computer screen. The study intends to expound the potential cognitive thresholding effects of STN by assessing how cued differential expectation to accurately discern an ensuing stimuli effects STN dynamics and behavior.

       I also generated a data processing pipeline for ECog data collected from our epilepsy patient population, and applied Python, MNE, Jupyter Notebooks, and a variety of other computational tools to clean the data, and to employ complex analyses including the calculation of event related potentials, average power analyses, and time-frequency spectral analyses.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Ahmad Hariri, the research conducted through the Lab of Neurogenetics aims to use neuroimaging, molecular genetics, and behavioral data to understand the origins of variability in brain chemistry, as well as to explore the impacts of this variability on behaviorally and clinically relevant brain function.

 

Through the lab, I have worked on a meta-analysis exploring whether cognitive performance is a predictor of depression onset. The methodology included a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing literature, with a focus on longitudinal or epidemiological studies in which cognitive function had been assessed prior to depression onset. The analysis ultimately culminated in the calculation of an odds ratio of developing depression (or correlation coefficient if measures are dimensional) across studies, thereby establishing a quantitative relationship of any effect. The resulting article is currently being reviewed for publication.

 

My Graduation with Distinction project developed a genetic risk profile for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), comprising of 9 genes previously identified for MDD risk that produce protein products involved in stress and/or reward neurocircuitry. Statistical analyses using linear regression models and interaction models were conducted to explore the ability of an individual’s genetic risk score to predict incidence of depressive symptomology. Additionally, the risk profile was tested against functioning of relevant neurobiological circuitry assessed via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In particular, stress and reward-related functioning was tested. It was found that an individual’s genetic risk profile score predicts their level of depressive symptomology, as moderated by the experience of recent life stress. The results build off prior genetic findings to increase the predictive utility of depressive symptomatology, accounting for 1% of the variance in the total sample, and 4% of the variance in the male subsample, larger than the variance explained by any individual genetic variant.

     The VIP Fellows (Vertical Integration Program) is a summer research program that provides advanced opportunities for undergraduate research leading to Graduation with Distinction. My research was conducted through the Duke NeuroGenetics Lab, under the mentorship of Dr. Ahmad Hariri, and explored the relationship between genetic impacts on neurobiological variability, and the functional and behavioral implications of this variability on psychopathology.

     

Using data collected through the Duke Neurogenetics Study (DNS), I tested the hypothesis that an individual’s SCN2A genotype has mediating effects on cognition, through variability in gray matter volume. Statistic analyses were conducted using SPSS, grey matter levels were assessed using voxel-based morphometry, and ultimately no significant effect was found.
       In a separate, additional project, I worked on a meta-analysis exploring whether cognitive performance is a predictor of depression onset. The methodology included a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing literature, with a focus on longitudinal or epidemiological studies in which cognitive function had been assessed prior to depression onset. The analysis ultimately culminated in the calculation of an odds ratio of developing depression (or correlation coefficient if measures are dimensional) across studies, thereby establishing a quantitative relationship of any effect. The resulting article is currently being reviewed for publication.

Through Duke University, I conducted interviews with 5th and 6th graders living in North Carolina, gathering data for a study that aimed to explore the effects and variability of factors motivating the activities and goals of early middle school students.

In addition to helping 12x12 manage social media profiles and event releases for several artists under the company's management, I also conducted research on music marketing strategies, metadata analysis, and music distribution techniques. Namely, I analyzed how emerging metadata services compare in the data they provide, as well as how specific sets of data are useful to the marketing tactics of specific artists. I furthermore researched how to maximize music marketing techniques within popular music distribution sources, such as Spotify, Youtube, and Soundcloud, and applied these techniques to artists managed by 12x12. 

Undertook a research project exploring the effects of the concentration and availability of the glycoprotein fibronectin on the adhesion and coalescence of epithelial cells. Grew experimental cell cultures, analyzed the cultures using live cell imaging via a Nikon Biostation, coded a program in MATLAB to quantify changes in cell adhesion/coalescence, and presented cumulative research findings to the Center for BioImaging Sciences.

Over three summers I worked as a research assistant at the Weill Cornell Breast Center in New York City with Dr. Linda Vahdat to develop methods for quantifying qualitative changes in peripheral nerves of breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapeutic treatment using the drug ixabepilone. In addition I assisted in the data collection and organization of several other breast cancer related clinical drug trials.

Over three summers I worked as a research assistant at the Weill Cornell Breast Center in New York City with Dr. Linda Vahdat to develop methods for quantifying qualitative changes in peripheral nerves of breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapeutic treatment using the drug ixabepilone. In addition I assisted in the data collection and organization of several other breast cancer related clinical drug trials.

As president, I facilitated the logistical and organizational groundwork of all 47 service clubs operating under the Singapore American School, in addition to organizing emergency fundraisers for international crises (raised $145,000 for Japanese tsunami aid in 2011).  I worked with administrators to help improve the Singapore American School service learning model, and was invited to present the model at the 2012 International Service Learning Conference in Singapore. 

http://www.saseye.com/2012/03/service-council-attempts-to-regulate-service-hour-giveaways/