(4dh) Computational Biology in Research and Classrooms: From Modeling CAR T-Cells in Solid Tumors to Developing Educational Tools for Inclusive, Active Learning Environments

Classroom Experiences

I honed my teaching prowess and desire to become a passionate, learner-centered instructor in a teaching focused position through an extensive track record of teaching and learning—spanning teaching an undergraduate course as a graduate student, three teaching assistant (TA) positions, guest lectures, face-to-face and online instruction, grading and tutoring peers, and developing 2^nd-8^th grade STEM camps. My love for teaching began in 6^th grade when I became one of the first and youngest Junior Volunteers at Elm Fork Education Center, a science summer camp for 2^nd-8^th graders, where I dedicated over 500 hours of volunteer service. I was later hired as a camp counselor to develop and lead science camps. As a University of Texas at Austin undergraduate in both chemical engineering and biochemistry, I tutored and evaluated student learning in undergraduate chemical engineering courses, through which I learned to teach and provide feedback to my peers.

As a graduate student, I served as TA for chemical engineering undergraduate and master’s level courses, provided guest lectures on course content and my research, and created supplementary instructional videos modeling problem solving strategies. Collectively, these experiences solidified my love of collegiate-level teaching, taught me how to engage undergraduates through technical material, and gave me experience developing diverse resources to support students. Most recently, I applied and was one of three graduate students accepted to the Teaching Apprentice Program within Northwestern University’s Chemical and Biological Engineering (ChBE) Department, where I co-instructed undergraduate Kinetics and Reactor Design. This experience coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the course was conducted entirely online. I quickly adapted to online instruction, gaining teaching skills while implementing my student-centered approach by accommodating student needs during global panic. Throughout the term, I collected student and instructor feedback to continually improve my teaching. These experiences deepened my commitment to teaching, honed my skills, and taught me to value feedback, each of which will serve me well as a faculty member.

Scholarship and Pedagogy

My experiences engaging with teaching scholarship and studying pedagogy through research, literature, and course development prepare me to thrive as an instructor. As an undergraduate, I conducted engineering education research interrogating factors that increase a sense of belonging to ultimately mold engineering student identity; this project sparked my interest in teaching and learning scholarship. As a graduate student, I completed the Teaching Certificate Program (TCP), which admits 60-80 applicants each year, at Northwestern’s Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching. I read literature on teaching and learning, discussed evidenced-based teaching practices, iteratively developed a course using peer and mentor feedback, and refined my teaching philosophy. I created an Introduction to Computational Biology course that provides a survey of computational methods applied to real-world biological contexts. I was selected by TCP’s directors to serve as one of six Graduate Teaching Mentors for the incoming participants, specifically the engineering Ph.D. students and post-doctorates, where I will develop and lead a seminar, provide feedback on their course assignments and teaching statements, and read and discuss teaching literature with my fellow mentors from various disciplines. Collectively, these experiences gave me the skills necessary to remain involved with teaching scholarship by attending conferences, engaging with and contributing to relevant literature, and developing courses that implement evidence-based practices to continually improve my skills as an educator.

Service and Citizenship

Outside of the classroom, I have built a substantial track-record improving education at the student, TA, and instructor level through various teaching related services, which will enable me to strongly contribute to my department and community as an instructor. As a graduate student, I led the ChBE Department Teaching Committee, co-created and led the McCormick School of Engineering Graduate Teaching Committee, and trained for, developed, and led seminars for the Northwestern Graduate Student Teaching Conference. In these roles, I learned to develop resources, create and analyze surveys assessing TA and student needs and experiences, and lead workshops and discussions on teaching practices. I took concrete action to foster equitable learning environments through collaboration on social justice-focused initiatives. For example, with three other graduate students, I created and led a department-wide two-part Contextualizing Your Research Workshop where students and faculty were guided through case studies highlighting racism in chemical engineering contexts and helped participants think critically about the impacts of their research through an anti-racist lens. I subsequently joined the ChBE Department’s new Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ARDEI) Committee, where I am co-developing a first-year graduate student seminar course on engaging with ARDEI-focused practices in and beyond research. I am also writing example chemical engineering practice problems that incorporate ARDEI and social justice contexts and co-developing a workshop for ChBE Department faculty to learn how to write problems on and hold discussions about ARDEI topics. Finally, I co-wrote a climate survey given to students, faculty, and staff to assess inclusivity and equity within the department. These experiences highlight my strong desire to engage with teaching and learning in a diverse, equitable academic environment in and beyond the classroom by mentoring, developing and leading workshops, and improving and creating curricula to foster inclusive learning environments.

Philosophy

Through substantial and diverse teaching experiences, I have developed and implemented a teaching philosophy centered on active learning, inclusivity, adaptability, and supporting students in and beyond the classroom. As an instructor, I use evidence-based practices to make my classes clear, engaging, and interactive while integrating real-world contexts. I adapt my teaching and course structure to student needs by utilizing frequent student evaluations. I enhance course accessibility and inclusivity by offering resources, content, and assignments in varied forms to incorporate multiple cultural frameworks and styles of learning to build upon student strengths and improve weaknesses without excluding any students. My experiences and engagement with teaching and learning service and literature informs my core stance that teaching and learning occur as part of an open conversation between students and instructors, where instructors work to make education inclusive and equitable through classroom structure and content as well as through service, supporting students throughout their studies and experiences.

Research Interests

Ph.D. Dissertation: “Elucidating quantitative principles by which tunable chimeric antigen receptor T-cell properties and inherent tumor features influence solid tumor treatment using agent-based models”

Co-advised by Dr. Joshua N. Leonard and Dr. Neda Bagheri, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, which provide personalized and targeted cancer treatments, achieved great success in treating liquid cancers but still face challenges in treating solid tumors. Solid tumors present harsh tumor microenvironments, which limit CAR T-cell infiltration and survival, and rarely display unique tumor antigens, resulting in off-tumor targeting of healthy cells. Although engineers aim to design CAR T-cells around these constraints, the variety of designs and critical tumor contexts make testing every possible design in vitro or in vivo prohibitive. However, computational modeling provides the opportunity to test designs, understand underlying biological phenomena, and describe emergent behavior efficiently and systematically. Thus, I created a multi-scale, multi-class agent-based model (ABM) designed to elucidate how inherent tumor features and tunable CAR T-cell therapy properties affect treatment outcomes. This work builds upon a previously established ABM—a “bottom-up” computational model that utilizes first-principles to dictate probabilistic rules that guide agent behaviors and interactions within a local environment. The model enables simulating various agents, including cancerous and healthy tissue cells and CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ CAR T-cells, accounting for cell metabolism and signaling, within both dish and vascularized tumor contexts. After validating the model by comparing simulated outcomes with known experimental observations, I used this ABM as a testbed to interrogate fundamental design questions that are difficult to address experimentally by exploring tunable CAR T-cell design parameters. I additionally used the model to investigate how cell-, population,- and vasculature-level heterogeneity impact treatment efficacy. The model can help elucidate design rules that may ultimately guide the construction of novel solid tumor CAR T-cell therapies.

Mentoring Experience

My graduate mentoring experiences taught me how to collaborate and support undergraduates through research projects. I co-mentored three undergraduates through projects using ABM data to analyze biopsies and classify tumors using machine learning and statistical analysis, which taught me how to guide undergraduates in critical thinking while developing their technical skills. I also co-developed and led workshops on computational methods for peers and undergraduate researchers. Overall, I cultivated strong mentoring skills through collaboration and community building.

Future Directions

As a faculty member with interdisciplinary technical expertise and formal training in evaluating and meeting student needs, I will foster inclusive, active learning environments and enhance student problem-solving skills using evidence-based methods, computational instructional tools, real-world examples, and courses positioned at the interface of multiple fields. My skills in survey development and analysis, computational research, undergraduate mentoring, and engineering education position me well to achieve these goals. I look forward to applying my experience in course development to meeting program-specific, contemporary learning needs. Overall, I am excited to continue mentoring and teaching undergraduates, creating courses at the interface of multiple fields, and engaging in teaching and learning scholarship and service.