Aleena P
- Research Program Mentor

PhD at Princeton University

Expertise

Biological Engineering, Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology

Bio

I grew up in the beautiful rolling hills of Northern California, where I attended the Branson School for high school. I moved to Southern California to complete a Biological Engineering degree at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2011, and then left the West coast to start my PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University. In the past several years, I have worked at the intersection of multiple fields: engineering, molecular biology, and developmental biology. I am passionate about curiosity-driven science, and outside of the lab, I enjoy hiking, traveling, singing and playing the violin!

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.

A New Model Organism

Researchers in the life sciences often ask a fundamental question: how are living things built up from a single cell to a complex organism? Much of what we know today comes from work in model organisms like fruit flies, zebrafish, mice, and worms. There are historic and practical reasons for these choices for model organisms, but there may be many more species that can open doors for new discoveries and research directions. This project is an opportunity to delve deeper into new ideas for model organisms, for specific research questions like disease modeling, or to propose a new system for a wide variety of researchers to use.

Coding skills

Python, Matlab

Languages I know

Spanish, intermediate

Teaching experience

I have taught middle and high school students with private tutoring academies, and via community service projects. I have also taught laboratory and lecture-based university-level courses at Caltech and Princeton.

Credentials

Education

California Institute of Technology (CalTech)

BS Bachelor of Science (2015)

Biological Engineering

Princeton University

MA Master of Arts (2017)

Chemical and Biological Engineering