Home Department: Human Biology
Mentor: William Hiesinger (Cardiothoracic Surgery)

“Defining the Role of SDF-1α In Myocardial Recovery”

Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Michelle hypothesized that chemokines induce myocardial recovery post heart attack by differentially recruiting subpopulations of inflammatory cells. She is analyzing and processing next-generation single cell RNA sequencing data using Seurat on R, identifying differences in subpopulations of inflammatory cells and analyzing differential gene expression across these cell types. This remote project is allowing her to learn programming in R, identify cell types based on gene expression, and teaching her how to analyze and integrate single cell RNA sequencing data (a highly coveted skill), all while furthering the research goals of the lab.