William Witt – NIH Trainee 2023-2025
Research Progress: I’m a PhD student in the Timme-Laragy Lab studying PFAS and redox development. My research focuses on developing cellular models for PFAS- specific oxidative stress.
Over the last year, I’ve been working on expanding my knowledge of transfection, cellular exposure models in toxicology, transcriptomics and cellular development. I’ve obtained a better understanding of the transcription factors that drive redox stress, and methods by which to assess their presence, activity, and health. I’ve created and troubleshooted procedures for the generation of stable, co-transfected cell lines containing fluorescent fusion proteins. I’ve developed experiment to asses fluorescence level and measure fluorescence and changes due to exposure using confocal microscopy.
I’ve also gained training and practice in exposure assays relating to zebrafish. I’ve run multi-day exposure assays, learned to assess health of zebrafish embryos and larvae, and gained a strong understand of anatomy. I’ve used this knowledge to assess and measure fish health.