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Michel N

- Research Program Mentor

PhD at Princeton University

Expertise

Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Organic Chemistry

Bio

I am a quantitative biologist with a PhD from Princeton University. Since high school, I have been interested in science and engineering, both as a participant and as a teacher. I co-founded my high school's robotics club as a freshman and was heavily involved in it for four years. I went on to do a Bachelor's degree in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley before arriving in Princeton. Now, I am a biochemist and cell biologist working in a lab that primarily studies metabolism. I have broad interests within these research areas and can select a project according to a student’s interests. I am primarily interested in tutoring students who are at least somewhat interested in pursuing research as a career, although other students are also welcome.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Example projects...

Any advanced project will likely include analysis of systems-level datasets (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics) using the programming language R. Along the way, students will read a handful of cutting-edge academic papers critically, learning about the structure of these papers and the review process. Students will download publicly available datasets from these papers and learn to re-analyze them, confirming reported findings and (with determination and some luck) adding findings of their own. They will then present their work in a poster or short paper. Alternatively, students without programming experience can choose to do a critical review of the literature in an area of interest, reading a handful of seminal papers, identifying key questions that remain unanswered, and building a hypothesis-driven experimental plan to address them. Example projects include 1) analysis of the response to amino acid starvation in pancreatic tumors, 2) comparison of the anti-viral response to SARS-CoV-2 infection versus other viruses, and 3) literature review of the role of protein misfolding in neurodegenerative disease.

Coding skills

R, Python, Matlab

Teaching experience

I've tutored students on and off since high school. I've also taught two Biochemistry courses for Princeton undergraduates and was nominated for a university-wide teaching award.

Credentials

Work experience

Princeton University (2018 - Current)
Post-doctoral researcher

Education

University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley)
BS Bachelor of Science (2011)
Bioengineering
Princeton University
PhD Doctor of Philosophy (2018)
Quantitative and Computational Biology

Reviews

"I have loved the experience so far. Michel has been very helpful in giving me the proper resources to understand the project as well as helping me understand the more complicated concepts during the sessions."

Mark from Walnut Creek, CA

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