There’s No Place Like Home
Recent UCLA graduate Daniel Minassian (B.S., 2019) helped launch the first annual Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America STEM conference in his hometown of Glendale, CA, where he also presented his ongoing research in the French lab at UCLA.
The Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America (AESA) is a non-profit organization which aims to enable and empower the Armenian STEM community worldwide to facilitate global progress through STEM education, humanitarian initiatives, and international collaboration and development. Daniel was elected to the board of this national organization during his senior year at UCLA for a 3 year term.
The STEM conference featured scientists and engineers from across the country and provided an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to present their work. Unlike most academic conferences, this conference was open to all attendees free of charge, promoting the free exchange of scientific ideas. Topics ranged from bioengineering solutions to short bowel syndrome to the future of artificial intelligence in autonomous vehicles.
The Killer Bug
Daniel was able to present his research on the pathogenic bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei which causes the neglected tropical disease melioidosis and is classified as a potential bioweapon by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Burkholderia pseudomallei is highly antibiotic resistant and naturally inhabits the soil of endemic regions such as southeast Asia and northern Australia, where it is particularly problematic.
Notably, B. pseudomallei is environmentally acquired and doesn’t spread from humans to humans, so melioidosis is only acquired through inhalation, ingestion, or contact with contaminated soil or water. This also suggests that understanding how B. pseudomallei infects human hosts requires us to understand how it survives in the environment. Studying environmental isolates of B. pseudomallei can be tricky, however; it is easy to acquire hundreds of strains from the environment but cumbersome to study them in a timely and cost-effective manner. To address this challenge, Daniel adapted a workflow for quickly estimating the genetic diversity of environmental and clinical B. pseudomallei isolates from Thailand and Australia. Daniel and other members of the French Lab then applied this workflow to quickly screen through B. pseudomallei isolates in search of environmental and genetic signatures of virulence.
Future Projects
Since presenting at the AESA STEM conference in Glendale, CA, Daniel has traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam to attend the World Melioidosis Congress and engage with scientists and clinicians tackling melioidosis across the world. In November, Daniel plans to present a poster at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Acknowledgements
Daniel would like to thank the great efforts of the other conference organizing committee members: Shaunte Baboumian (chair), Aram Ter-Martirosyan, Araksiya Nadjarian, Seth Kazarians, Armond Davidian, Aida Bareghamyan, Arin Abed, Arbi Derghokasian, Nareh Saghatelian, Richard Ohanian (AESA VP), Sona Juharyan, Arin Azadkhanian, Mineh Badalian, and Lilian Ae