As the resident macrophage cells of the brain and CNS, microglia serve as immune sentinels and play a critical role in both healthy and pathological states. However, most single-cell studies on microglia have been in mice or FACS-based in humans with a limited number of cells and individuals. By analyzing single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-Seq) datasets of human microglia across several diseases including Alzheimer’ s Disease (AD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), this project aims to examine the heterogeneity of microglia across brain regions, age, and sex in both homeostatic and diseased states, characterize potential disease-specific and disease-shared microglia subtypes and identify transcriptional changes in these subtypes in aging and disease.

I’ ve done research in cognitive science and neurobiology, including data analysis for predictive theories of ASD and wet-lab experiments for small molecule, nucleic acid, and cell therapeutics for neurological diseases. Through this SuperUROP, I hope to apply my computational skills and research experience to analyze these large single-cell genomics datasets and gain a better understanding of the role of microglia in neurological diseases.