Research, Teaching, and Service

Graduate Researcher (June 2019 –  ) in Dr. Gene-Wei Li’s Lab, Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

   Awards

  • MIT School of Science Service Fellowship (2023)
  • MIT Biology Department Award for Excellence in Teaching (2022)
  • MathWorks Science Fellowship (2022)
  • MIT Biology Department Award for Excellence in Teaching (2020)

   External Funding

  • MathWorks Foundation (September 2022May 2023)
  • MIT School of Science (June 2021August 2022, August 2023 – January 2024)
  • NIH T32 Pre-Doctoral Training in Biological Sciences (August 2018 – May 2021)

   Teaching

  • MIT Biology (January 2023, teaching assistant training facilitator)
  • MITx Inclusive Teaching (June 2022 – July 2022, 7.InT digital learning project facilitator) [url]
  • MIT Quantitative Measurements and Modeling of Biological Systems (March 2022 – May 2022, 7.572 teaching assistant)
  • MIT Quantitative Analysis of Biological Data (January 2022 – March 2022, 7.571 teaching assistant)
  • MIT Biology (August 2021, teaching assistant training panelist)
  • MIT Introductory Biology (August 2020 – December 2020, 7.012 teaching facilitator)
  • MIT Introductory Biology (August 2019 – December 2019, 7.012 teaching assistant) [url]
  • MIT ESL Program for Service Employees (March 2019 – March 2020, HiSET science curriculum teacher)
  • MIT High School Studies Program (February 2019 – March 2019, ‘S12817: Next Generation Biology Course’ teacher) [url]

   Presentations and Conferences

  • MIT Biology IAP (January 2024, poster)
  • MIT Biology IAP (January 2023, poster)
  • Teaching at Teaching Intensive Institutions (September 2022)
  • MIT Biology Retreat (June 2022, poster)
  • MIT Biology IAP (January 2022, poster)
  • Regulating with RNA in Bacteria and Archaea (January 2022)
  • MIT Biology Retreat (June 2021, poster)
  • MIT Biology IAP (January 2021, poster)
  • Cold Spring Harbor Conference on Translational Control (August 2020)
  • Boston Bacterial Meeting (July 2020)
  • MIT Biology Retreat (June 2020)
  • MIT Biophysics Retreat (October 2019, poster)
  • MIT Biology Graduate Student Retreat (June 2019)
  • Boston Bacterial Meeting at Harvard University (June 2019)
  • MIT Biology Retreat (June 2019)
  • MIT Biophysics Retreat (October 2018)

   Trainings and Certifications

  • MIT Research Mentoring Certificate Program (January 2024)
  • MIT Biology Pedagogy Program Certificate (January 2022 – April 2022)
  • MIT Teaching + Learning Lab’s Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program (September 2021 – December 2021)
  • MIT Biophysics Certificate Program (August 2018 –  )

   Coursework

   Outreach and Extramural Mentorship

  • MIT Office of Graduate Education’s Virtual Graduate Fair for undergraduates (November 2023, biology representative)
  • LEAH Project’s BIPOC Professionals in STEM Panel for high school students (February 2022, panelist)
  • LEAH Knox Scholars Biomedical Research Mentoring Program for high school students (October 2021 – June 2023, mentor)
    • Mentees: Darian Ventura (Everett High School), Yafet Alemtsehay (Cambridge Rindge and Latin School)
  • MIT Office of Graduate Education’s GradCatalyst Workshop for undergraduates (November 2021, February 2022, and November 2022, facilitator)
  • MIT Office of Graduate Education’s GradDiversity Program (September 2021 – June 2023, graduate diversity ambassador)
  • MIT Department of Biology’s PhD Application Assistance Program for undergraduates (September 2021 – December 2021, July 2022 – December 2022, June 2023 – July 2023, mentor and panelist)
  • MIT Department of Biology’s booth at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) Virtual Conference for undergraduates (November 2020, representative)
  • UC Berkeley Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholars Association’s Panel on Undergraduate Research for undergraduates (November 2020, panelist)
  • MIT Office of Graduate Education’s booth at the SACNAS – National Diversity in STEM Virtual Conference for undergraduates (October 2020, representative)
  • MIT Office of Minority Education’s Laureates & Leaders Initiative for undergraduates (August 2019 – June 2023, mentor)
  • High School Field Trips to MIT Biology (March 2019, developmental biology lab mentor; June 2022 and March 2023, facilitator)
  • MIT Advice Forum on Majors for undergraduates (March 2019, panelist)

   Departmental Mentorship and Service

  • MIT Biology BIPOC Graduate Student Recruitment (February 2023, panelist)
  • MIT Biology External Advisory Board (August 2022, panelist)
  • MIT Biology Diversity Community (May 2022 –  April 2023, organizer)
  • Visiting Undergraduate Student’s Research Internship (May 2022 – August 2022, mentor)
    • Mentee: Isabelle Kim (Amherst College)
  • MSRP Biology BioPals Mentorship Program (May 2022 – August 2022, mentor)
    • Mentee: Austin Dellafosse (Howard University)
  • MIT Biology Graduate Student’s Research Rotation (April 2021 – May 2021, mentor)
    • Mentee: Wen Du
  • MIT Biology Graduate Student Council (August 2019 – July 2020, representative)
  • MIT Biology BioPals Mentorship Program (July 2019 – July 2020, organizer; August 2019 – December 2019, August 2020 – December 2021, mentor)
    • Mentees: Vidit Bhandarkar, Abdallah Mohamed, Emily Navarrete, Ana Tsai
  • MIT Biology Graduate Student Retreat (March 2019 – June 2019, organizer)
  • MIT Biology Graduate Student Recruitment (February 2019 – March 2019, organizer; February 2021 and February 2022, panelist)

   Scientific Journalism

  • MIT Science Policy Review (interviews directorSeptember 2020 – September 2021; associate editor, October 2019August 2020) [url]

   Peer Review

  • PLoS Biology (2020)

   Science Communication

  • MIT Biology Art Showcase (April 2023, presenter) [url]
  • MIT Biology Science + Creativity Series (March – April 2023, organizer) [url]
  • MIT Draw Your PhD Showcase (February 2023, presenter)
  • MIT Graduate Arts Showcase (April 2022, presenter)
  • Communicating Science at MIT’s training workshop for ‘3 Minute Presentations’ (January 2020, organizer)
  • Communicating Science at MIT’s training workshop on ‘Explaining Research in 30 seconds’ (December 2019, organizer)
  • Curiosity Awards at Cambridge Science Festival (April 2019, volunteer)
  • Stories in Science Gallery at Cambridge Science Festival (April 2019, volunteer)
  • Communicating Science at MIT’s ‘Tell A Scientist’ table at Cambridge Science Festival’s Science Carnival (April 2019, volunteer)

   Public Policy

  • Cambridge Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (HEART) Research Report (April 2022 – July 2022, contributor) [url]
  • MIT Graduate Student Council’s External Affairs Board’s Public Comment at the City of Cambridge’s Public Safety Committee Meeting (December 2021, organizer)

Graduate Intern (January 2018 – August 2018) in Dr. Justin Kinney’s Lab, Simons Center for Quantitative Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

   Papers

  • Talitha Forcier, Andalus Ayaz, Manraj S. Gill, Daniel Jones, Rob Phillips, Justin B. Kinney. Measuring cis-regulatory energetics in living cells using allelic manifolds. eLife 2018;7:e40618 (2018) [url]

   Theses

  • Talitha Forcier. Precision Measurement of Cooperative Interactions in Transcriptional Regulation in Living Cells. (2019)

   Conferences

  • Cold Spring Harbor Conference on Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression (March 2018)

Undergraduate Researcher (March 2014 – May 2017), Undergraduate Lab Assistant (December 2013 – October 2014) in Dr. Dirk Hockemeyer’s Lab, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

   Awards

  • UC Berkeley Honors to Date Citation (Spring, 2017)
  • UC Berkeley Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (Sciences Fellow, 2016) [url]
  • UC Berkeley Amgen Scholar (2015)
  • UC Berkeley Undergraduate Scholarship (2015-2016)
  • UC Berkeley Alumni Association Leadership Award Finalist (2013)

   Papers

  • Kunitoshi Chiba, Jacob M Vogan, Alex R Wu, Manraj S Gill, Xiaozhu Zhang, Kathleen Collins and Dirk Hockemeyer. Endogenous Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase N-Terminal Tagging Affects Human Telomerase Function at Telomeres In Vivo. Molecular and Cell Biology 37:e00541-16 (2017) [url]

   Theses

  • Kunitoshi Chiba. Decoding the mechanisms of cancer and stem cell immortality. (2018)
  • Tina Wagner. The role of DNA methylation and cis-regulatory elements in the transcriptional regulation of telomerase. (2015)

   Teaching

  • Amgen Biotechnology Experience labs at Oakland High School, Berkeley High School, and Oakland Technical High School (February 2017 – April 2017, teaching facilitator)
  • UC Berkeley Undergraduate Biology Journal Club (February 2016 – April 2017, 4x paper presenter) [url]
  • UC Berkeley DeCal Program: Berkeley Scientific Journal Interviews Department (August 2014 – May 2016, teaching instructor for practices in science journalism)

   Presentations and Conferences

  • Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships Conference (August 2016, oral, ‘Transcriptional Regulation of Telomerase’)
  • UC Berkeley SSSCR Stem Cell Conference (October 2015poster)
  • QB3/IGI Re-writing Genomes Symposium at UC Berkeley (August 2015poster)
  • UC Berkeley Amgen Scholars Summer Research Program Symposium (August 2015poster and oral)
  • National Amgen Scholars Symposium at UCLA (July 2015)

   Trainings

  • Amgen Biotech Experience Professional Development Program (October 2015)
  • UC Berkeley QB3 Lab Fundamental Bootcamp (May 2014)

   Coursework

   Departmental Mentorship and Service

  • UC Berkeley Work-Study Student’s Research Rotation (January 2016 – June 2016, mentor)
    • Mentee: Rachel Trujillo

   Scientific Journalism

  • Berkeley Scientific Journal (interviews department editor, August 2014 – May 2016; interviews department member, August 2013 – May 2014) [url]

   Science Communication

  • Discovery Day at Bay Area Science Festival (November 2017, set up volunteer)

   Public Service

  • Berkeley Project Site Leader (‘Rebuilding Together’, Spring 2014, awarded ‘Best Site at Berkeley Project Month‘) and Volunteer (Spring 2014, Fall 2013)
  • American Red Cross Member of the Month (March 2014), Health and Safety Committee Active Member, Leader of 3 on-campus trainings on ‘CPR/AED, First Aid, Hands-Only and Citizen CPR’ (Spring 2014)

Research Assistant (June 2012 – August 2012) in Dr. Mark A. Zern’s Lab, UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

   Awards

  • CIRM Research Scholar Award (2012)

   Presentations

  • CIRM Creativity Program Annual Symposium at Stanford University (August 2012, poster,Identifying Epigenetic Factors in Hepatocyte Differentiation to Improve Liver Therapy‘)

   Trainings

  • Certification in Good Manufacturing Practice (August 2012)
  • Bio 225: Stem Cell Biology and Manufacturing Practices (taught by Dr. Gerhard Bauer, June 2012 – August 2012)

   News

  • PBS: UC Davis Nurtures Next Generation for Stem Cell Research [url]

Intern (January 2012 – May 2012) in Dr. Alan Rose‘s Lab, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of California, Davis.

   Awards

  • 1st Place in Agricultural Biotechnology in the UC Davis Teen Biotechnology Challenge (2012, ‘Genetically Modified Crops: Drug Resistant and Water Use Efficient‘) [url]

   Presentations

  • Davis Senior High School ROP Biotechnology Symposium (June 2012, poster)
  • Monsanto Scholarship contest at Monsanto’s Calgene Campus in Davis (May 2012, oral, ‘Role of Introns in Gene Regulation and Expression‘)
  • UC Davis Teen Biotechnology Challenge Symposium (May 2012oral)

   Trainings

  • Yolo County ROP Certification in Biotechnology (2012)

   News

  • Davis Enterprise: Blue Devils excel at teen biotech challenge [url]

High School Student at Holmes Junior High School (April 2009 – August 2010) and Davis Senior High School (August 2010 – May 2013)

   Awards

  • AP Scholar with Distinction (2012 and 2013)
  • CSF Seymour Award Finalist (2013)
  • CSF Davis Chapter’s Active Lifetime Member Scholarship (2013)
  • NHS Davis Chapter’s Active Lifetime Member (2013)
  • India Association of Davis Scholarship (2013)
  • French Department Citation (2013)
  • Blue Devil Spirit Awards (2012 for French 4, 2013 for Language Tutors Club)
  • National Forensics League degree of Merit (2011) and degree of Honor (2012); Varsity Member in Lincoln-Douglas Debate (2010-2013, best results of 3-0 in National Qualifier and 3-1 in a local tournament)
  • Scholarship for Fine Arts (2009 for drawing and painting) from the Rotary Club of Davis

   Teaching

  • Language Tutors Club (2011-2013, founder, president, and instructor in French and English) [url]

   Coursework

   Public Service

  • California Scholarship Federation (president, 2012-2013; secretary, 2011-2012; member, 2010-2013) [url]