from Cincinnati State University and she brought her enthusiasm for science and life in general to the program.
In Dr. Addepalli's lab, we're working on creating ribonucleases from different plants. In particular, it has been found that cucumber has the correct sequences that mimics the sequence in the ribonuclease A. This is an enzyme that slowly breaks down the RNA molecule so that we're able to target a particular section and amplify it using Polymerase Chain Reaction. Once the portion of RNA is amplified then the process of cloning and expression begins. The molecule is then cut and cloned to then have the clone joined with the vector. The purpose of this is that RNA molecules have certain modifications that occur. Sometimes there is a dysregulation of the modifications that causes an RNA molecule to have more than normal. We want to see these modifications and see how they could possibly relate to human disease. The idea is to find more plants that have this particular sequence so that more ribonucleases can be cloned and expressed.