Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
csun@wellesley.edu

Hello! My name is Christina Sun and I am a junior at Wellesley College. I am from Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. At Wellesley, I am majoring in neuroscience and preparing for a career in medicine and research. I was always interested in research and had the opportunity to develop this interest the summer of 2008 at Northwestern University. In the Division of Infectious Diseases, I studied the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). There, I learned not only several laboratory techniques but also how important basic science research is to understanding, diagnosing, and treating disease. This past summer, I joined the Tetel Lab through the Science Center Summer Research Program at Wellesley. I had a wonderful experience working in the Tetel Lab this past summer and plan to continue my research through the academic year.

In the Tetel Lab, I am investigating the role of membrane estrogen receptors in estrogen signaling using a transgenic mouse that expressed membrane only estrogen receptor-α (MOER) from Ellis Levin's lab. MOER mice are void of nuclear and cytoplasmic estrogen receptors, which are known to have transcriptional effects in brain. The Levin lab has shown that MOER mice have severe atrophy of reproductive organs and that female mice are infertile. Previous work has demonstrated that wild type mice express estradiol-induced progestin receptors. Our lab is examining whether or not MOER mice can still induce the expression of progestin receptors in brain via membrane estrogen receptors alone. To address these questions, I use immunohistochemistry and confocal analysis.

Previous Research:
Division of Infectious Diseases - Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University
Chicago, IL
Summer 2008
Research Intern
Mentor: Eunyoung Kim, PhD