Avalon Johnson
Class of 2021
Education: Blended BS + MS Biology at Cal Poly
Biography
Avalon is a Biological Sciences major graduating from Cal Poly in Spring 2019. She is interested in all aspects of Stem Cell Research, but is particularly interested in the applications of this research towards neurological diseases. After the program, Avalon plans to pursue either a Ph.D. in medical research or attend medical school to continue growing her knowledge in the field.
Avalon completed her internship at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine in Nicole Coufal’s lab and under the UCSD Department of Health. The Coufal lab focuses on microglia, the resident macrophages of the central nervous system, and their role in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Avalon worked on a project studying the phenotype and function of microglia in Friederichs's Ataxia, a genetic ataxia affecting mostly adolescent individuals. For her project, she used CRISPR-modified induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to make microglia, neural progenitor cells, and cerebral brain organoids to investigate changes in various cellular functions. This was a collaborative project with the Cherqui lab at UCSD.
