Graduate Student - Masters

University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)

Immune Dysfunction and Cancer; AIDS Pathogenesis.

Most of the work and research is to better understand the role of immune dysfunction in the genesis and growth of in human cancer. Solely focusing on better defining the role of HIV infection-associated immune dysfunction in the development and growth of AIDS-associated cancers. Our research work is directed at determining how immune system factors associated with B cell hyperactivation. Non-Hodgkin's B cell lymphoma (NHL) is a common cancer in HIV infection. Many NHL are thought to result from errors in class switch recombination and/or somatic hypermutation, processes that occur in germinal center B cells, and require the activity of activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Since NHL is a common cancer in HIV infection, and expression of AID could contribute to the development of NHL, we hypothesized that AID expression would be elevated in those who went on to develop AIDS-associated NHL (AIDS-NHL). AID mRNA levels were measured by TaqMan RT-PCR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, obtained prior to AIDS-NHL diagnosis, from 16 HIV-infected subjects who developed AIDS-NHL, and from control subjects (AIDS but no NHL, and HIV-negative subjects). PBMC AID expression was markedly elevated in those who developed AIDS-NHL, when compared to AIDS and HIV-negative controls. Additionally, AID expression was seen to differ depending on NHL subtype, with the highest levels of expression seen in those who developed Burkitt's lymphoma.

2004 Training and research in infectious diseases at UCLA Medical Center

2004 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

2006-present Phi Beta Kappa

2006-2007 Outstanding Achievement scholar

2006-2007 AAI-Invitrogen Trainee Achievement Award

2006-2007 Departmental Scholar Program (DSP)

2005-2007 National Research Service Award (NIH F32)