Biography

Michelle is a Regent Scholar pursuing a biology degree in UCSB’s College of Creative Studies. She has been a member of the Arias Lab since her freshman year in spring 2017 and is primarily interested in molecular biology and microbiology. Michelle's research focuses on elucidating the role of novel viral small open reading frames (smORFs) in the KSHV genome. One project uses GFP tagging to determine localization of any potential smORF protein products; she is also leveraging the power of CRISPR to tag smORFs in KSHV infected cells in order to explore the impact of their expression on the dynamics of infection. Michelle has given multiple poster presentations at academic conferences as her project has progressed. Outside of lab, Michelle enjoys getting outdoors to go hiking, alternative music concerts, and photography.

Research Area

Michelle will it optimizing a Cas9 based system for virus mutagenesis in order to investigate the function of novel KSHV smORFs. 

She is a research specialist in the Myhrvold Lab at Princeton University Molecular Biology