2024
Rajni Nitturi (Westside High School, Houston, TX)
Rajini’s summer internship program focuses on comparing different expression
levels of proteins present in disease phenotypes of inflammatory bowel
disease using data analytic algorithms.
Robell Ephrem (Dulles High School, Sugar Land, TX)
Robell’s summer internship program focuses on preparing novel adjuvants for testing their efficacy in vivo for therapeutic applications using advanced bimolecular and cellular analysis techniques.
Post-internship update: Undergraduate education at Columbia University, New York, NY.
Shriya Ramanan (Dulles Math and Science Academy, Sugar Land, TX)
Shriya’s summer internship research focuses on comparing the expression of various proteins across different disease phenotypes of colorectal cancer, utilizing Python and data analytics algorithms.
Post-internship update: Undergraduate education at Rice University, Houston, TX.
Eesha Surapaneni (Dulles Math and Science Academy, Sugar Land, TX)
Eesha’s summer internship program focuses on studying the role of various ECM proteins in renal fibrosis using qPCR and immunofluorescence.
Post-internship update: Undergraduate education at Rice University, Houston, TX
Eesha Kodavatikanti (Tompkins High School, Katy, TX)
Eesha’s internship is focused on incorporating vertical flow assays with components of ELISA to develop point of care tests for lupus nephritis using biomarkers found in saliva.
Sriram Susarla (Dulles High School Math & Science Academy, Sugar Land, TX)
Sriram’s summer internship focuses on identifying novel protein biomarkers in bladder cancer patients using a 7000-plex SomaScan platform and subsequent data analysis techniques and algorithms.
Suchay Kommisetty (Jordan High School, Katy, TX)
Suchay’s summer internship project involves developing a pipeline to segment and classify various immune cells in the kidney using membrane proteomic expression profiles and diverse Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques; neighborhood analysis will be used to identify the interactions / cross-talks between the immune cell populations in low disease and high disease lupus patients.
Mahith Gottipati (Dulles High School, Sugarland, TX)
Mahith’s summer internship project focuses on a novel approach to segment and classify kidney tubules from Lupus Nephritis biopsies using spatial proteomics data, employing an array of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques and models; the tubule proteomic data will then be correlated with Lupus disease severity.
Vishal Surya (Seven Lakes HS, Katy, TX)
Vishal’s summer internship program focuses on the role of M2 macrophage polarization in the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in Lupus Nephritis (LN) using qPCR and immunofluorescence techniques.
Post-internship update: Undergraduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA.
Mayank Konduri (Obra D. Tompkins High School, Katy, TX)
Mayank’s summer internship involves applying statistical techniques and machine learning algorithms, such as Lasso Regression and Bayesian analysis, to identify significant protein biomarkers in proteomic data, differentiating between diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and lupus nephritis and healthy controls.
Post-internship update: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
2023
Ariana Luo is a rising senior at Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas, with interests in biology research, experimenting with oil paint, and all things Liszt. Ariana’s project focuses on the engineering of point-of-care test strips for diagnosing lupus nephritis and inflammatory bowel disease.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at Cornell University, New York, NY.
Chris Jang is a rising senior at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, with interests in immunology and molecular biology. Chris’s project focuses on identifying novel biomarkers for neuropsychiatric lupus, using a novel platform based on proximity ligation assay.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at Rice University, Houston, TX.
Hubert Lu is a rising senior at Carnegie Vanguard High School in Houston, Texas, with interests in improving diagnostics and biomarkers for diseases such as cancer and lupus. Hubert’s project will compare and contrast novel biomarkers for stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer, discovered using a comprehensive aptamer-based screen.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at Stanford University, CA.
Richard Wang is a rising senior at Clear Lake High School in Houston, Texas, with interests in biomedical engineering. Richard’s project will focus on examining the potential role of various ECM proteins and RNA molecules in renal disease, using spatial transcriptomic datasets.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at Princeton University, New Jersey.
Sanjay Krishna is a rising senior at Seven Lakes High School in Katy Texas, with interests in medicine and public health advocacy, Indian classical music, and learning new things about human biology. Sanjay’s project will focus on identifying circulating autoantibodies that are associated with renal pathology activity or chronicity in lupus nephritis.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at UT Austin, Austin, TX.
Sohan Kureti is a rising senior at Harmony School of Advancement High School in Houston, Texas, with interests in the Fabrication of bioartificial spleens for immunological studies and therapeutic applications. Sohan’s project will focus on identifying excreted proteins that are associated with renal pathology activity or chronicity in lupus nephritis.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at UT Austin, Austin, TX.
Vedant Sharma is a rising senior at Awty High School in Houston (Texas), with interests in cancer biology (with a focus on immunology) alongside an interest in the application of protein biomarkers. Vedant’s project will focus on examining the impact of mesenchymal stem cell secretome on cancer cells, and the impact of splenic ECM proteins on immune cells.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at Brown University, Providence, RI.
Videet Mehta is a rising senior at Dulles High School Math and Science Academy in Sugar Land, Texas, with interests in bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and clinical decision-making. Videet’s project will apply the latest AI algorithms in order to better diagnose and classify lupus nephritis using images of renal tissue slides.
Post-internship update: Pursuing undergraduate degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA.
2018
Rahul Agarwal, The Village High School, Houston, TX
Research Project: Biomarkers for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Post-internship update: Completed undergraduate degree at UT Austin, Austin, TX.
Shobha Dasari, The Woodlands College Park High School, Woodlands, TX
Research Project: Inconsistencies in assessing Lupus Nephritis pathology; Novel Lupus biomarkers
Post-internship update: Completed undergraduate degree at Stanford University Stanford, CA.
Jennifer Li, Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Houston, TX
Research Project: Novel molecules expressed in nephritic kidneys
Post-internship update: Completed undergraduate degree at UT Austin, Austin, TX.
Shree Mohan, Dulles Math & Science Academy, TX
Research Project: Random Forest Classification analysis of biomarkers
Post-internship update: Completed undergraduate degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA.
2017
Rahul Agarwal, The Village High School, Houston, TX
Palak Diwanji
Sommer Luu
Shree Mohan, Dulles Math & Science Academy, TX
2015
Suchin Kundra
They worked on background research and analysis of NPSLE protein biomarkers.
Grace Jiang
She evaluated the storage conditions of ELISA reagents.
Kavita Selva
They researched sweat-based biomarker studies in the published literature.
2014
Arun Kane
They worked on pathogenesis and biomarkers of lupus nephritis.
Tiffany Kim
Their work was on the genetics of autoimmune disease.
Saineha Shetty
Their research forcused on validating biomarkers of SLE.