Anastasiia Diagel

- Project: “Single-Cell Analysis of Human Atherosclerotic Plaques" - I performed bioinformatics analysis of the single-cell RNA sequencing data with R programming language, Seurat, DoubletFinder, SingleR, scTalk, CellChat packages, Slingshot, Monocle, and Velocyto algorithms. I integrated 3 datasets with > 60 000 cells and identified and described 22 specific cell populations according to their differentially expressed genes

- I had a full-time internship at the R&D Department - I applied genetic engineering techniques to get new strains of E. coli that produce recombinant human insulin. I made plasmid DNA transformation into bacterias via electroporation, selected plasmid-containing colonies, checked uptaken vectors (by PCR and restriction digest), prepared fermentation of colonies with the correct plasmid for protein production - I tested 9 gene insertions, and biobanked the most productive clones for the further analysis

- I developed a supplementary educational course on the basics of molecular biology, bioinformatics, and genome editing for high school students - I conducted 10 lectures and explained more than 30 theoretical and practical tasks to help children consolidate the new information

- Project: “The Antitumor Activity of Tussilago Farfara L. Polysaccharides in Lewis Lung Carcinoma Mouse Model” - I worked with laboratory animals, prepared drug solutions, made cancer cells transplantation, carried out drug administration into > 100 mice, measured the volume of solid cancer, performed dissection and extracting organs of animals, and made statistical data analysis - We showed that the use of Tussilago farfara L. polysaccharides together with cytostatics can significantly reduce tumor growth

- Project: “Investigation of the Antinociceptive Activity of α-Phellandrene in Sarcoma 180” - I worked with laboratory animals, prepared drug solutions, carried out intraperitoneal and oral drug administration, evaluated the pain level in mice using the von Frey test and the hot plate method - We found optimal doses of α-phellandrene that show the best mechanical and thermal antinociceptive and antitumor activity in mice

This is an interdisciplinary program, where we studied a wide range of subjects from Life Sciences and Medicine (e.g. Biochemistry, Physiology, Neurology, Immunology, Pharmacology, and so on). I finished it with a perfect GPA (5.0 out of 5.0) and was recognized as a top 3 student in the Biomedical department.