Taylor's Outreach

Working with Belle Huang

High school sophomore, Belle Huang, has worked in the Wilson Lab for her Honors STEM course since August 2019. Throughout this experience, Belle is to pursue an individual research project, for which she will present in a poster session this upcoming March. So far, Taylor has taught Belle how to keep a lab notebook, design and execute experiments, and interpret results. She has also taught Belle technical skills in mammalian cell culture, bioluminescence assays, nanoparticle assembly, and particle characterization. Belle's research project focuses on formulating lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles for the delivery of dsDNA to mouse macrophages in vitro to promote a type-I interferon immune response through antagonizing the cGAS-STING pathway.

Working with The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV)

Starting November 2019, Taylor began working with The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt University to design a unique program for a group of high school sophomores who will complete a research project this upcoming spring. The students will study planaria regeneration as a model of spontaneous growth and how it is affected by biomaterials and immuno-stimulants. The students will work on this project during the spring semester and will present their findings through both poster and oral presentations. This will be an exciting and tangible experiment, giving high schoolers a chance to learn about important concepts of cell growth and immunology, and to provide a knowledge base on how research is completed and the values that come along with executing the scientific method. Taylor is looking forward to inspiring the young minds of our future scientists and engineers.