Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program at UC Davis

Brooke graduated with a B.S. in Biology from the University of Detroit Mercy. As an undergraduate, she was a ReBUILDetroit scholar, identifying mutations that alter the regulation of cell growth and division in developing flies under the guidance of Dr. Jacob D. Kagey. Additionally, she engaged in out-of-consortium research at the University of Arizona, investigating RNA stability in desiccated cells in the Carini Lab through the Undergraduate Biology Research Program. Following graduation, she continued her journey as a research laboratory technician at the University of Michigan, focusing on virus-host interactions of oncogenic and oncolytic viral infections, particularly nuclear entry, in the Spriggs Lab. As a PREP scholar at UC Davis, Brooke will explore virus-host interactions of mosquito-borne flaviviruses, such as Zika and dengue, in Dr. Priya Shah’s lab. Brooke aims to further her academic pursuits by obtaining a Ph.D. in Microbiology.

Zoe Upham graduated from San José State University (SJSU) with a bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry. At SJSU, she worked under Dr. Melissa Pickett to investigate the effects of PAR-1 on the establishment and maintenance of epithelial cell polarity using C. elegans intestines as a model. As a PREP scholar she will continue her work in C. elegans, using GEMs to measure differences in molecular crowding of the cytoplasm in different tissues, eventually looking into molecular crowding in disease and aging states. Zoe hopes to pursue a PhD in molecular cell or developmental biology.

Paloma Kai Velez graduated from Vassar College in 2024 with a B.A. in Biochemistry, where she researched the inner workings of eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3), a protein essential to the function of translation initiation. Paloma joined PREP@UCDavis to broaden her research experience within the supportive and collaborative environment that PREP has to offer. Within PREP, she hopes to tune her scientific communication skills and to widen her scope of research in preparation for graduate school. She is currently very interested in virology and is studying how viral outbreaks occur, or more specifically, the factors within the viral genome responsible for outbreak and transmission.

Marco Alarcon earned his bachelor’s degree in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior at University of California, Davis. As an undergraduate, he conducted research in Dr. Karen Zito’s lab, where he performed mutagenesis experiments on the protein PSD-95 to investigate its role as a regulator of dendritic spine plasticity. Now a PREP@UCD scholar in Dr. Christina Kim’s lab, he will investigate the effects of psychedelics on the activity of neurons in the nucleus accumbens of mice, with the goal of paving the way for the development of new treatments for certain brain disorders. He hopes to eventually earn his PhD in neuroscience.

Jewel Wilson recently graduated from Sacramento State University with her bachelors in Biochemistry. As a RISE scholar, Jewel worked in Dr. Katherine McReynolds’ lab, where she researched and synthesized glycopolymers as potential broad spectrum antiviral therapeutics. Now as a PREP scholar, she will be researching alongside Dr. Janine LaSalle, developing NHIP peptide-based treatments to combat common adult hypoxic disorders. After PREP@UCD, Jewel plans to pursue her PhD. 

Christian Torres earned his undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in Mathematical Modeling from Northeastern Illinois University. As a MARC and McNair scholar and as a Society for Developmental Biology Choose Development! fellow, he studied a downstream effector of p53 called PIG11 and its role in neural crest cells during early zebrafish development, with guidance from Dr. Jorge Cantú. During his time as PREP@UCD scholar, he investigated two topics: the intricacies of mRNA processing from a temporal perspective using yeast as a model system, and characterizing the spatiotemporal expression of genes encoding alpha and beta-tubulin isoforms during vertebrate embryonic development. Christian hopes to pursue a PhD in developmental biology.