De’Ashia Lee

Hi, my name is De’Ashia Lee and I grew up in Pineland, SC.  I attended Howard University in Washington, DC where I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Biology.

My father passed away from sarcoidosis when I was very young.  At the time, I didn’t know anything about sarcoidoisis. Through independent research I learned that the cause of sarcoidosis is unknown, but the current hypothesis is that in genetically susceptible individuals sarcoidosis is caused through alteration  to the immune response after exposure to an environmental, occupation or infectious agent. The research surrounding sarcoidoisis made me very interested in science, particularly disease susceptibility and infectious diseases.

In college I further explored my interests in science by participating in different research training programs. I decided to pursue a career in research because you are constantly challenged to balance creativity with critical thinking. Research is one of the few career paths where you able to make contributions to answer some of the problems that affect society at large.

The research areas I am most interested in are antibiotic resistance, innate immunity, and the molecular biology of viral diseases.

My long-term career goal is to be employed by a government institution where I can apply my research training to addressing public health issues, such as vaccine development, and antibiotic resistance.

The goal of PREP programs is to strengthen the research skills and academic competitiveness for students who are interested in pursuing a graduate degree. I decided to participate in a PREP program because I wanted to take advantage of any opportunity that would allow me to be a competitive applicant to graduate schools.

PREP@UGA is the best program for me because of the focus on infectious disease research. The environment at UGA for infectious diseases research is excellent and the faculty is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their work. The amount of collaborations among all the principle investigators was also very encouraging and indicated that teamwork is an important component of the program.

I hope that my training from PREP@UGA will allow me to present a confident, competitive, and competent applicant to graduate programs.

My research mentor is Dr. Mattie Pawlowic and my faculty mentor is Dr. Boris Striepen.

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that causes severe disease in humans. Children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals such as HIV/AIDS patients are particularly vulnerable. Toxoplasma gondii can infect humans in many ways; one way in particular is through drinking water contaminated with oocysts shed in cat feces. The oocysts have a tough outer shell that makes them resistant to conventional water treatments. My hypothesis is that certain lipids are critical to the formation of the tough oocyst shell. I will test my hypothesis by disrupting genes that encode enzymes that make lipids. I will make mutants by genetic engineering and then I will test the biological consequences of these changes. Each experience has allowed me to identify and cultivate my specific

Toxoplasma gondii is a good model to study this question because I can culture the parasites and change its genome by transfection. Specifically, I will make use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to target the loci of the genes. I have already constructed the targeting plasmids. My next step is to isolate the mutants by drug selection and test them in a mouse model. I will collaborate with Dr. Dubey at the USDA to study the impact of my mutants in the cat, which is the definitive host of Toxoplasma gondii.

My name is De’Ashia Lee and I am a PREP@UGA scholar!