Aashi Shah

When I first started in the group, I was working on a computational chemistry project related to the efficacy of natural small molecules on amyloid-beta peptides involved in Alzheimer's. Eventually, I shifted focus to synthetic work and worked on the semi-synthesis of various small molecules in different subgroups, mostly pertaining to developing anti-cancerous analogs of existing natural products. However, in the past year, I've found my interest lies in in biology and neurology. I've been involved in cell work for a variety of projects in Edward's group, maintaining cell lines and performing biological assays. Additionally, more recently, I started participating in a collaboration to develop spectroscopy methods to quantify neurotransmitters in brain tissue samples in order to analytically identify Parkinson's disease.

Highlights regarding conference proceedings and publications:
Poster at ACS: "Reactivity informed design, synthesis, and targeted delivery of andrographolide and analogs, Nf-kB regulated natural products for cancer treatment and degenerative diseases"
Publication in JEI: Mechanistic Deconvolution of Autoreduction in Tetrazolium-based Cell Viability Assays, manuscript in review, Journal of Emerging Investigators