This summer, I have the incredible opportunity to work with the Duraisingh Lab at the Chan School of Public Health, which studies malarial invasion, particularly how parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum invade red blood cells. I am currently studying population genetics by analyzing data from the 1000 Genomes Project, a global sequencing project to identify genetic variants across populations. Using computational genetics and statistical tools, my main goal is to study signatures of selection for malaria across European and South Asian populations to further identify important target red blood cell genes for further study in the lab. Although virtual, this opportunity has been incredibly rewarding from learning new computational tools to meeting individuals from different career paths in global health.
