Christelle is currently a sophomore studying Biological Sciences with a Neurobiology and Behavior concentration. She currently works under the mentorship Professor Nozomi Nishimura and of Silvia Zhang on optimizing the CLARITY optical tissue clearing protocol. She focuses focus on the ex-vivo analysis of microglia and neuron interactions in the in brain using CLARITY. This protocol results in optical clearing of animal tissue samples by replacing the lipids in the sample with a hydrogel like hybrid that is transparent. This increases the depth at which samples can be imaged under the microscope and allows for analysis of tissue through immunohistochemistry.
After graduation she is interested in going to medical school to hopefully pursue Emergency medicine or Trauma Medicine. When she is not in lab she in involved with the Biology Scholars Program on campus, volunteers at the Loaves and fishes organization on in the town of Ithaca and is a member of the Cornell Surgical Society.
