Samantha Sison

I am a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UCSD and received a B.S. in Neurobiology from the University of Wisconsin Madison. At UW-Madison, I worked in the lab of Dr. Kate O’Connor-Giles where I studied the genetic regulators of synaptic function using CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering of the fruit fly. After graduating, I worked as a lab technician in the lab of Dr. Allison Ebert at the Medical College of Wisconsin. At MCW, I studied a variety of neurological diseases including Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, Huntington’s disease, and human cytomegalovirus using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived astrocyte, neuronal, and organoid models. As a Ph.D. student, I am working in the lab of Dr. Gene Yeo studying the underlying mechanisms of Huntington’s disease using iPSC based neuronal models. I hope to translate my research into therapeutic applications for the treatment of Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. During my time as an ARCS scholar, I hope to engage with the community and give back through mentoring undergraduate researchers in the lab and leading Nucleate San Diego, a free biotech entrepreneurship program aimed at educating scientists on how to translate their science from the lab to the real world. I am so thankful for these career development opportunities and the fellowships that have made my scientific endeavors possible.