B.Sc. Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology. University of Kentucky
Expected Graduation: 2027

I am a rising junior at the University of Kentucky, where my research journey began in high school with Dr. Nick Teets at the Department of Entomology. There, I completed a capstone project assessing thermal limits in insects using computer-assisted motion detection, which sparked my passion for scientific discovery.

As a freshman, I investigated mitochondrial footprints of T-cells in transgenic zebrafish to explore pediatric leukemia pathways in Dr. Jessi Blackburn’s lab at the College of Medicine. Later, in Dr. Qing Shao’s lab at the College of Engineering, I applied large language models to predict protein structures, allowing me to explore the intersection between computation and life sciences. Returning to the Teets lab in my sophomore year, I led an independent project examining how temperature influences RNAi efficacy in the Colorado potato beetle.

This summer, I am excited to explore CRISPR and metabolomics under the mentorship of Drs. Extavour and Jaiyesimi. I look forward to carrying the insights gained from this experience into a future Ph.D. program, where I hope to contribute to interdisciplinary research and develop into a broadly trained evolutionary biologist.

Beyond research, I find sanctuary and inspiration in visual art and dance.  Both art and science are creative practices exploring complexity, cultivating focus, and expressing curiosity. Together, they offer a space for reflection, discovery, and dialogue.

Darrington M, J Solocinski, SK Zhou, MC Lecheta, SR Palli, YH Chen, NM Teets. 2024. Temperature, but not plant cultivar, influences the efficacy of insecticidal dsRNA in Colorado potato beetle. Insect Molecular Biology, 1-12.

Perez-Galvez, F R, SK Zhou, AC Wilson, CL Cornwell, D Awde, NM Teets. 2023. Scoring thermal limits in small insects using computer-assisted motion detection. Journal of Experimental Biology, 226 (22).