Home Department: Human Biology
2020 Research Project: “Building a Machine-Learning Model to Predict the Peak Knee Adduction Moments in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis”
2020 Mentor: Scott Delp (Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering)
Knee osteoarthritis is a painful disease that affects the lives of over 20 million individuals in the United States. Although previous studies from Stanford have demonstrated that adjusting the walking patterns of patients with knee osteoarthritis can greatly reduce their pain associated with the disease, the current method of training these individuals requires expensive laboratory equipment. Using video from smartphones, Andrew’s research will employ machine learning to develop a new method to predict the optimal way of walking in order for these patients to reduce knee loads and therefore pain. The success of this project will open the door to improving the rehabilitation of people with musculoskeletal diseases.
2022 Research Project: “Evaluating the Effect of SARM1(-/-) on Immune Response following Ischemic Stroke”
2022 Mentor: Marion Buckwalter (Neurology & Neurological Sciences and Neurosurgery)
Prior work in the Buckwalter Lab has demonstrated an elevated inflammatory response specifically in the white-matter regions of the brain following ischemic strokes. Cellular localization of immune cell B-Lymphocytes and Monocytes in areas where post-ischemic axon degeneration occurs indicates the possibility that antigens released when axons degenerate may trigger and sustain a chronic inflammatory response, which contributes to the progressive decline in cognitive function. Specific goals for Andrew’s project are threefold. (1) He will learn the techniques necessary to perform stroke surgeries on live normal mice and mice missing the Sterile alpha and TIR motif containing 1 (SARM1) gene, a member of the Toll/Interleukin receptor-1 family responsible for triggering an immune response. (2) Using immunohistochemistry, he will stain the brain tissues following stroke to identify axonal structures to evaluate the degree of axonal survival. (3) Lastly, he will apply confocal microscopy to obtain a 3-D view of brain images and characterize proteins and antigens associated with specific immune cells to assess the degree of immune response. His project will therefore focus on investigating the degree of axonal survival, as well as assessing innate and adaptive immune responses following stroke injury.
