AME - Studying the interplay of cancer, immunity, and mechanics on Earth and in space

We have openings for multiple undergraduate researchers on projects related to studying and targeting immune and mechanical abnormalities in brain and breast tumor microenvironments, both in Earth-based research and in-space research on the International Space Station (ISS). Potential projects include but are not limited to: 

• 3D organoids/tissue models of glioblastoma and triple-negative breast cancer
• Mechanical effects on/of cancer and immune cells
• Metabolic consequences of abnormal mechanics in tumors
• Optimizing biological payloads for implementation in space (on ISS), including consideration of mechanical disruption during launch/return (e.g., vibration and shock)
• High-throughput drug screening for more effective anti-cancer/immunotherapies
• Design, construction, and implementation of random position machines to simulate microgravity
• Analytical modeling of 3-D tumor growth and perfusion (e.g., drug delivery)
• Computational approaches for multi-omics (e.g., genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, etc.)  

Undergraduate students could be trained in a variety of i) wet laboratory in vitro techniques such as cell/tissue culture (2-D/3-D cellular models), genomic/other-omic sequencing (e.g., RNA-seq, ATAC-seq), molecular biology (e.g., PCR, Western Blot), and high-resolution brightfield and fluorescent 2-D/3-D imaging, and ii) dry laboratory techniques such as bioinformatics (e.g., using R, Python), biostatistics, and AI. Preference will be given to candidates with prior experience in one or more of these areas. Freshman, sophomores, and juniors from the College of Science and College of Engineering are welcome to apply. Students will be mentored by full-time graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and/or research scientists in the lab.