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Research Assistant - Protein Design and Synthetic Biology

Molecular Information Systems Lab (MISL) - University of Washington

September 2024 - Present (1 year, 7 months)

• Developed a high-precision computational protein design pipeline integrating Protein Generator, AlphaFold, RFDiffusion, ProteinMPNN, and Chai-1 to improve structural fidelity and functional selectivity in de novo post-translational modification binder generation.
• Designed a custom E. coli-based assay to evaluate protein-protein interactions, engineering a plasmid via Gibson assembly and site-directed mutagenesis to enhance transformation efficiency in BL21(DE3) and 5-alpha strains.
• Developed a deep learning model integrating chemical descriptors and drug embeddings for synergy prediction. Conducted ablations and explainable AI analyses to evaluate descriptor importance and improve model robustness, achieving over 40% improvement in mean squared error (MSE) when compared to state-of-the-art methods.
• Currently developing LLM-driven approaches for antibody sequence and structure research.
• More details to come (top-secret research in progress)!
• Publication(s):

  Wong, K. L.-J., Tolhurst, M., Fox, O. A., Diwan, S., Bogard, N., Nivala, J., (2026). The Next Generation of Protein Sequencing and Analysis Methods. Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 19.

Graduate Teaching Assistant and Guest Lecturer

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (CSE 473) - University of Washington

March 2026 - June 2026 (3 months)

• Guest lecturer discussing how machine learning and artifical intelligence can be applied to protein design.
• Held office hours and designed novel assignment questions for the course.

Research Assistant - Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems Computing Group - University of Minnesota

June 2023 - June 2024 (1 year, 1 month)

• Developed scalable video applications capable of recognizing faces, facial expressions, and whiteboard characters.
• Designed each application to interface with a lab-developed autoscaling algorithm that uses several parameters, such as historical load prediction, performance awareness, and real-world metrics, to scale resources on the edge.
• Implemented support vector machine (SVM) models with histogram-oriented gradients (HOG) features for video analytics. Built a scalable pipeline with Docker and Kubernetes, enabling manipulation at each stage.
• Delivered technical insights and performance results to Cisco Systems, demonstrating practical use of distributed ML.

Teaching Assistant

Introduction to Machine Architecture (CSCI 2021) - University of Minnesota

September 2022 - May 2023 (9 months)

• Worked with students of diverse backgrounds and experiences to debug code issues, explain core concepts, and promote group collaboration.
• Held office hours as well as demo sessions of 60+ students for projects and labs to explain key machine architecture and memory principles in both C and x86 Assembly.

Research Assistant - Chemical Biology

Distefano Lab - University of Minnesota

September 2021 - June 2022 (10 months)

• Synthesized libraries of peptides found in the human proteome using one-pot manual solid-phase peptide synthesis.
• Tested peptide libraries with yeast and rat farnesyltransferase (yFTase, rFTase) to evaluate prenylation susceptibility.
• Characterized reagent and post-enzymatic reaction peptide libraries using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), UV-Vis spectroscopy, and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS).
• Publication(s):

  Schey, G. L., Hildebrandt, E. R., Wang, Y., Diwan, S., Passetti, H. A., Potts, G. W., Sprague-Getsy, A. M., Leoni, E. R., Kuebler, T. S., Sham, Y. Y., Hougland, J. L., Beese, L. S., Schmidt, W. K., & Distefano, M. D. (2024). Library Screening, In Vivo Confirmation, and Structural and Bioinformatic Analysis of Pentapeptide Sequences as Substrates for Protein Farnesyltransferase. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(10), 5324.

Research Scientist Intern

Amazon

July 2026 - October 2026 (4 months)

Software Cloud Engineer

Medtronic

July 2023 - September 2024 (1 year, 3 months)

• Successfully integrated a new insertable cardiac monitor (ICM) into the Medtronic CareLink Remote Monitoring System by developing micro-service infrastructure for protected health information (PHI) transmissions.
• Developed .NET REST APIs for microservice communication and data transfer during patient device-to-cloud transmission processing.
• Maintained high availability of Azure remote environments by automating codebase updates and implementing CI/CD workflows.
• Co-led organization-wide .NET upgrade at Medtronic, safeguarding data quality and security throughout the transition.
• Improved efficiency in the CareLink codebase by developing scripts for streamlined package version updates, enhancing overall development agility and shared environment consistency.

Research and Development Engineer

FemtoFluidics

March 2023 - February 2024 (1 year)

• Developed a novel and proprietary SOP for pentapeptide library syntheses and assisted in the design of a procedure for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) on magnetic beads. Sourced potential material/equipment vendors.
• Developed a novel protocol for peptide synthesis on magnetic beads as an alternative to standard resin, and synthesized peptide libraries using manual solid-phase peptide synthesis.

Software Engineering Intern

Medtronic

June 2022 - August 2022 (3 months)

• Implemented REST APIs using C# and .NET to integrate heart monitor data into CareLink.
• Increased consistency between SQL and Apache HBase by building record reconciliation capabilities from both databases within a single C# implementation.
• Developed Azure pipelines to build and deploy code into a testing environment and release necessary artifacts.
• Assisted team in transitioning from deprecated virtual machine development environments, ensuring successful setup of Kubernetes and Docker infrastructure.

Software Engineer Intern

UnitedHealth Group - Optum

June 2021 - August 2021 (3 months)

• Analyzed data irregularities and built a mapping between MS SQL Server and ServiceNow using Jupyter Notebook to synchronize data, visualizing results in Tableau.
• Created an update plan for future consistent data integration between the two databases, using newly built tables in MS SQL Server and ServiceNow APIs.
• Designed and presented biweekly presentations to brief company executives on project progress and insights.

Intern

University of Minnesota Nano-Center

March 2019 - May 2019 (3 months)

• Explored practical applications of the nanosciences in fields such as medicine, computing, and chemistry.
• Synthesized and analyzed nanoparticles through the use of devices such as the Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) Instrument, Nanoparticle Tracking Analyzer, Zeta Potential Analyzer, and Laser Diffraction tools.
• Explored the administrative areas of a lab, management, training, and facilitation of events.
• Observed training of new lab users and discussed research topics with students and industry clients.
• Attended UMN-hosted conference related to the nanosciences, applications of nanotechnology and analysis devices.