Julia Kudryashev

Julia's Story: Hands-on CRISPR-Cas system

Julia spent her summer of 2016 working on CRISPR-Cas and a protein that locates and cleaves a matching DNA strand.

Major & Class Year
Course 20, Bio-Engineering, '17
MISTI Program
Internship
Location
Kyoto, Japan 2016
MISTI Host 2016
Center for iPS Cell Research & Application, Kyoto University
Location
Seika Town, south of Kyoto 2017
MISTI Host 2017
Advanced Telecommunications Research Inc.
  • Julia Kudryashev

I tested the efficiency and uses of a CRISPR-Cas system within human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). CRISPR-Cas is a gene-editing system that contains a strand of guide RNA and a protein that locates and cleaves a matching DNA strand.

When a strand of DNA is cleaved, it is possible to induce mutations in that region when the cell tries to repair it. These mutations can be random deletions or insertions of DNA bases which can lead to removed or altered genes.

This system can be used to develop disease models.

I used my biology background and lab experience to understand how these systems worked and to run the assays that evaluated the systems.

  • MIT-Japan internship at Hotta Lab, CiRA in 2016
  • Julia Kudryashev Okonomiyaki
Julia ATR diagram 2017
“MISTI Japan was a truly amazing experience that allowed me to explore both myself and the culture around me.
My self confidence, communications skill, and time management skills all improved as a result of overcoming the challenges that arose during the program, and I felt that I contributed to my workplace in a meaningful way.
Julia Kudryashev, '17
  • Julia sushi 2017
Julia zebrafish

The lab I worked in, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, is focused in the life sciences with the aim of understanding biological function in order to accurately predict diseases. BioMEC-X stands for Biology, Medical sciences, Mathematics, Engineering and Computational sciences, which are the disciplines involved in the research.

I took 3D time-lapse video of a developing zebrafish liver, and write a program that could identify individual cells in the liver and then track them over time. I had some knowledge from the introductory Python classes that are required for bioengineering, so I chose to write the program in Python 2.7. A big part of the internship involved researching current methods for identifying parts of an image and then learning how to implement them myself.

I was able to participate in really interesting cross-cultural conversations with my co-workers in my lab.

  • MIT-Japan internship at Advanced Telecommunications Research Inc. in 2017