Helen Fenske

Helen is an undergraduate at San Diego State University, where she is majoring in chemistry, with an emphasis in biochemistry. Her research interests lie in the intricacies of protein structure, and its implications for disease development and progression. At SDSU, she has worked in Dr. Huxford's Structural Biochemistry Laboratory, and collaborated with the EM Facility director, Dr. Niesman. She has been using computational methods to understand the implications of point mutations in the structure of feline tyrosinase. Irregular tyrosinase function has been connected to melanoma and Parkinson's disease. She is excited to join the Wei lab for the summer, where she will be learning how to use vibrational imaging to study RNA condensates and their role in neurodegenerative disease. In the future, Helen is planning to pursue a PhD in biophysics, and hopefully have her own lab someday!