Adriana San Miguel
North Carolina State University, NC·Biomedical Engineering
Even genetically identical worms raised in identical conditions die at very different ages. Why?
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
C. elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans
nematode
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Dec 2028
What they work on
- Develop BOWiD components, including inducible promoters that drive Cre recombinase, robust cellular landmarks and labeling approaches, and machine learning pipelines that read random fluorescent cell-labeling barcodes in individual C. elegans.
- Implement BOWiD in worms grown on agar plates to follow individual aging trajectories within a population, recovering the identity of each animal across its lifespan.
- Implement BOWiD in microfluidic devices with high-resolution imaging to track how the structure of aging neurons changes in identified individual animals.
- Build an RNA sensor strain of C. elegans to measure how diverse RNA structures taken up by feeding reach different tissues, and use artificial intelligence to design structures for optimal uptake.
- Test whether modified single-guide RNA structures delivered by feeding support microinjection-free CRISPR/Cas genome editing in C. elegans.
More about the research
The tiny nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a central model for studying the genes behind aging and health, but two basic limits slow this research. Researchers cannot tell individual worms apart over a lifetime, so identity is lost each time survival is scored. And precise gene editing requires injecting each animal by hand. This lab develops genetic and engineering tools, including machine learning and microfluidics, to remove both barriers.
Why it matters
Tools that follow individual animals through life could reveal why aging rates differ among genetically identical individuals and how early-life events or interventions shape longevity differently from animal to animal. Feeding-based gene editing could remove the main bottleneck to large-scale CRISPR screens in C. elegans, speeding discovery of genes involved in aging and other fundamental biological processes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jessica Sowa
West Chester University of Pennsylvania, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Screen wild free-living nematodes, collected by students in the Nematode Hunters program, for infections that spread to C. elegans strains carrying fluorescent infection reporters.
David Savage
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Biochemistry
Develop experimental methods to systematically map how mutations change the function of biomedically relevant proteins, such as CRISPR-Cas genome editing enzymes.
Craig Mello
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Genetics
Determine how germline cells distinguish 'licensed' genetic information that should be expressed from potentially dangerous 'unlicensed' information such as foreign or mobile sequences, using C. elegans small-RNA silencing pathways.
The school
North Carolina State University: 40 labs on PI Pages, $717M a year on research, 603 research doctorates a year.
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