Two outstanding Northwestern undergraduates, Hasan Munshi and Lauren Hyoseo Yoon, were named this year’s recipients of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP) \Undergraduate Research Award. Each will receive a stipend as well as the opportunity to present their research at one of the largest undergraduate research conferences in the nation, the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium (CAURS).
Hasan Munshi, a junior at Northwestern, aims to become a physician-scientist specializing in either nephrology or oncology, following his father’s footsteps.
“When I was a kid, I visited my father’s lab a lot,” says Munshi. “The idea of being a physician-scientist—being able to see patients while at the same time doing research on the disease in which he’s treating always interested and inspired me.”
Munshi’s father, Hidayatullah G Munshi, MD, the Robert and Lora Lurie Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) in Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, has provided valuable guidance to his son since the younger Munshi arrived at Northwestern—from explaining the inherent challenges in doing research to finding a principal investigator that best matched his interests.
Munshi’s interest in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry led to his working on a project in the lab of CLP member Karl A. Scheidt to synthesize a compound to inhibit a certain enzyme involved in pediatric leukemia.
“Certain cancer cells have these defense mechanisms that prevent them from being destroyed,” says Munshi. “One of these mechanisms is a pathway that increases its resistance to certain chemotherapeutics. The goal of our research is to knock down this pathway to decrease the resistance to chemotherapeutics for pediatric leukemia.”
Yoon, a sophomore double majoring in neuroscience and statistics, came to Northwestern to explore the larger world outside of her home in South Korea and to dive deeper into her diverse interests in brain science, the philosophy of science, and hard sciences.
“One of my big aspirations was to experience the US’s open and interdisciplinary approach to learning,” says Yoon.
From a very young age, Yoon was fascinated by the thought processes behind people’s decisions.
“It still remains very nebulous. I would like to try to tackle this issue by identifying the essential cognitive architecture of our decision-making processes through neuroscience,” says Yoon who plans to attend graduate school after earning her undergraduate degree.
Yoon is pursuing her multidisciplinary research in the labs of neurobiologist Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy, a member of CLP, and engineering professor John Rogers. Using an innovative wireless device developed by the researchers and applying optogenetics, a technique that uses both light and genetic engineering to control brain cells, she aims to identify the mechanism behind brain signals.
“I hope to discover different decision-making factors through the analysis of the results. I want to use the data to code and create artificial systems for things like sensing, abstract thinking and lots of other thought processes,” says Yoon. “I also hope this research project will help people with brain disorders, mental hardships or disabilities.”
“Both Hasan and Lauren are passionate about research and making a difference in people’s lives,” says Penelope Johnson, CLP’s Senior Project Coordinator for Outreach & Education. “I have no doubt that they will be responsible for some big breakthroughs in the future.”
by Lisa La Vallee