Contact Information
Summary
Emily started research in the Wenyan Mei lab during her first year of college. She studied the role of hnRNP I in colitis, colorectal cancer, and the brain-gut axis. For the next four years and two fellowship-supported summers, Emily's research in the Mei lab investigated intestinal homeostasis and function. Her senior thesis described the metabolic profile of the gut during arabinoxylan digestion and pathways of specific metabolites that may benefit host health.
In the summer of her junior year, Emily joined the Viral Persistence and Dynamics lab at NIAID. Here, she worked to improve efficiency in FIND-Seq machinery by adapting an alternative HIV transcriptome amplification method for HIV+ cell identification. As a postbaccalaureate fellow, she joined the Cutaneous Microbiome and Inflammation lab at NIAMS to engage in more diverse research interests.
Research Statement
Emily’s current research involves characterizing and utilizing the human skin microbiome in the context of diseases/disorders, allergies, antimicrobial resistance, homeostasis, and the development of computational analyses.
Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, minors in computer science and chemistry (2020-2024)
Experience
Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Laboratory of Cutaneous Microbiome and Inflammation, NIH/NIAMS, Bethesda MD (2024-present)
Summer Fellow
Laboratory of Viral Persistence and Dynamics, NIH/NIAID, Bethesda MD (2023)
Undergraduate Researcher
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign IL (2020-2024)