Wendy Dong
Program: Computational and Systems Biology
Current advisor: Jeffrey Milbrandt, MD, PhD
Undergraduate university: Duke University
Research summary
I am in the lab of Dr. Jeff Milbrandt, co-mentored by Dr. Sheng Chih (Peter) Jin. My research project focuses on understanding the different vulnerabilities of sensory vs. motor nerves in relationship to other cellular components of the peripheral nerves. These cells include glial cells, fibroblasts, vascular cells, and immune cells. The experiments will focus on how abnormalities in these surrounding cells disrupt axon maintenance and lead to varying resilience between sensory and motor nerves. I will use a multi-omics approach, performing and analyzing in an integrated manner of single-nuclei RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics. I am also interested in isoform dynamics in the peripheral nervous system and will use long-read RNA-sequencing to elucidate isoform remodeling in a nerve crush injury model.
Graduate publications