Jenna Kovsky, B.S.
Ph.D. Student
I graduated from UCLA in 2018 with my B.S. in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. As an undergraduate, I worked in Tom Carmichael’s lab, where I studied the behavior and morphology of astrocytes in response to ischemic stroke. I was chosen as a Neuroscholar in UCLA’s inaugural summer program for my work in the Carmichael lab. I was also a summer undergraduate volunteer in Eran Mukamel’s lab at UCSD, where I analyzed DNA methylation patterns in the brain tissue of Down syndrome patients. Additionally, I spent a term studying the genetics of hematopoiesis in Drosophila under the supervision of Cory Evans and Utpal Banerjee. I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UCSD and joined the Sander lab in June 2019. For my thesis project, I will use a CRISPR/Cas9 loss-of-function screening platform to identify and investigate genes involved in the maturation of pancreatic beta cells. As a second project, I will use CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in stem cells to model and understand the genetic basis of disease in a patient with congenital hyperinsulinism.