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BIO

Hi, my name is Ashkon Siami and I am a third year undergraduate student and a Molecular and Cell Biology major at UCSD. In the Bui Lab, I am currently working on the microplastic project where we are looking into how micro- and nanoplastics interact with the immune system. Using different polymers, we are generating fragments (using sonication and microwave) and characterizing them (using DLS and SEM). Then we are exposing the fragments to macrophages in vitro to evaluate the immune response (TNF-ɑ secretion). So far, we have found that polyacrylonitrile (PAN) produced a notable TNF-ɑ response, and so we hope to better understand the mechanisms behind this.