Leslie Abbott

• Conduct in-depth economic research to identify potential investment opportunities aligned with company and nonprofit goals.
• Analyze and present data through charts and graphs to highlight key market trends and investor prospects.
• Review patents and contractual agreements to ensure compliance with established requirements and obligations.
• Communicate effectively with high-profile clients, fostering strong professional relationships and delivering data-driven insights

Collaborated on a mobile application concept to screen children for early signs of autism, advancing to a competition where investors evaluated and funded innovative business models. Gained hands-on experience in all stages of developing a startup, including product design, business strategy, and stakeholder engagement. Key contributions included:

• Developing an AI-powered platform to detect developmental delays, leveraging machine learning algorithms for early screening.
• Partnered with child psychologists to ensure the application accurately identifies and flags developmental concerns based on validated clinical criteria.

Working under Dr. Anita Fernandez, I assist in her research using C. elegans to model the correlation between a dhc-1; mel-28 double mutants and a severely reduced brood size. Her research looks at why a simultaneous disruption of dynein and mel-28 can lead to failure of the oocyte maturity program. My role in the project consists of the following tasks

• Working with RNA interference-based genetic interaction screening using mel-28 and wild-type larvae
• Developed Python scripts to analyze RNAi screening data and asses correlation patterns, utilizing machine learning for feature extraction between patterns

Working under Dr. Isaac Macwaan, I assist in his research on the modeling and simulation of bacteriorhodopsin, a protein embedded in a bacterial membrane, and its interaction with a synthetic polymer that is experimentally used in electrospinning. We compared this to the bacteriorhodopsin's interaction with a carbon nanotube and graphene oxide nanoparticle. My role in the project is as follows:

• Utilizing Visual Molecular Dynamics, VMD, to display and analyze biopolymers
• Utilizing NAMD2 and CHARMM to design high-performance simulations of biomolecular systems
• Performing basic and exhaustive analyses on the simulations, including but not limited to NAMD energy, salt bridges, root mean square deviation, interaction energy, optimal distances from adsorbent, timelines, solvent accessible surface area, and Ramachandran plots
• Research Presented at Biomedical Engineering Soceiety 2024 and American Physical Society 2025

• Carrying out multi-step organic synthesis to create compounds with specific properties or structures.
• Ensuring the accuracy of instruments such as pH meters, balances, or chromatography systems by adjusting them to known standards.
• Recording experimental procedures, observations, and results, ensuring comprehensive documentation for reproducibility and regulatory compliance.

Working in the lab of Dr. Carsten Marr, his research contributes to advancing the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of severe blood disorders by developing machine learning algorithms to classify individual cells and patients. His lab leverages single-cell big data analysis to identify potential drug targets and applied mechanistic mathematical models to time-resolved data based on haematopoiesis. My role in the project included the following:

• Tested the accuracy and efficacy of image-based software for classifying leukemia using Google Colab
• Reviewed patient data from LMU and compared machine-generated results to actual clinical outcomes
• Analyzed cost vs. efficiency for image analysis and proposed edits to improve algorithm

Working under Dr. Danushka Bandara, I assisted in his research involving the application of machine learning to brain activity data. Specifically, he looks at the identification of potential task-shedding shedding events using fNIRS and CNNs to identify the specific brain regions associated with cognitive functions that tend to experience strain when undertaking demanding mental tasks. My role in the project included the following:

• Assisting in the fNIRS setup and completion
• Assisting in analyzing the visual imagery utilizing convolutional neural networks
• Utilizing Tensorflow, sklearn, matlab for feature extraction
• Research presented at Northeastern BioEngineering Conference 2024

As a student in a website development course, I worked with a small group to develop a modernized website for a nonprofit proliteracy organization based in Bridgeport, CT.

• Designed website layouts and user interfaces according to client specifications
• Developed and maintained websites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery
• Documented coding processes in order to facilitate easy maintenance of websites by other developers
• Implemented responsive design techniques for optimal viewing experiences across multiple devices

• Processed invoices, payments, and incoming and outgoing mail
• Provided customer service support, responding to inquiries in a timely manner
• Created and maintained filing systems, both electronic and paper-based, to facilitate quick retrieval of documents