Senior in Bioengineering
Hometown: Champaign, Illinois
Research Project: 27-Hydroxycholesterol (HC) Promotes Breast Cancer Recurrence
Faculty Mentor: Prof. Erik Nelson

Joy has been involved in research since high school. She was one of the participants of the high school summer research program, researcHStart. Since then, she has been conducting cancer research with Prof. Erik Nelson, Her current project aims to understand the specific interactions between cholesterol and breast cancer through actions of 27HC on polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNS). Joy has presented her research in various conferences and has co-authored an article published in Endocrine-Related Cancer.

Despite her committed involvement in research, Joy still finds time to take on other roles and projects. She is an Engineering Ambassador, outreach director of the Biomedical Engineering Society, outreach committee chair of the Society of Women Engineers.  She has also been active in Engineering Open House (EOH) and was team lead of an EOH project that aimed to visualize CRISPR technology through a virtual reality game.

Joy’s love for research has led her to pursue graduate school for her PhD at Berkeley/UCSF Bioengineering starting Fall 2021.

Fun facts:
Joy loves doing community outreach and engaging in various engineering projects.