Ava's Project Page

Who:  I’m Ava (she/her), and I’m from Boise, Idaho! I fell in love with Salt Lake’s beautiful scenery, and the U’s fantastic science programs, and am so happy to be pursuing my education alongside such a supportive community. I’m currently working towards my yoga teacher certification! I grew up dancing, but transitioned into a frequent practitioner of yoga and general lover of being active.

My scientific interests:  I have always been interested in the science of diseases and vaccines, which led me to dive into the studies of chemistry and biology. Chemical and biological processes on the molecular level are fascinating to me, and my current research deals with cell signals and biosensors. I am particularly interested in pursuing how to apply biosensor tools to disease diagnostics.

Academic goals:  I’m pursuing an Honors Bachelor of Science in biochemistry, with a minor in psychology. I would like to continue research in the Hammond lab, with the ultimate goal of publishing. I plan on completing an MD-PhD degree upon finishing my undergraduate education.

Career goals:  I want to serve my community as a medical doctor, specializing in infectious diseases. My dream is to work for an organization like the CDC or the WHO, perhaps someday in an administrative capacity.

Ribonucleic acid-based fluorescent (RBF) biosensors can be used for both in vitro and in vivo biosensing. These dynamic sensors are composed of a riboswitch domain and a fluorogenic dye-binding-aptamer. The riboswitch part in the biosensor changes conformation upon ligand binding and subsequently induces dye binding to the fluorogenic aptamer and exhibits fluorescence turn-on. 

The accuracy and effectiveness of the RBF biosensors hinge upon their ability to be precise and sensitive while exhibiting quick sensing capacity and long-lasting viability. The Hammond Lab has a reputation for producing biosensors with above-class-standard sensitivity, selectivity, and in vivo brightness. One such biosensor, developed and optimized by Johnny Truong and Sudeshna Manna, selectively binds guanidine, and is thus referred to as the guanidine biosensor. The guanidine biosensor is ideal for use in the context of engineering RBF biosensors due to its ability to permeate cell membranes effectively, and low cytotoxicity at millimolar concentrations. Previous lab results showed that single base pair mutation can increase the turn-on kinetics. This project focuses on mutagenesis of the guanidine biosensor RNA at four base pair locations on the Pb1 stem of the biosensor where the nucleobases are not conserved or involved in ligand bonding with the goal of improving biosensor kinetics. 

A key next step towards further increasing the efficiency of the guanidine riboswitch biosensor will be deducing what mutations in the guanidine biosensor’s RNA base pairs might be capitalized upon in order to speed up the turn-on kinetics of the guanidine biosensor.  The induction of these favorable mutations, and resultant analysis of favorability, will serve as a guide for other biosensor drafts as the lab moves forward with applying both in vitro and in vivo biosensor technologies to different target ligands.