Savannah Wakita
Education
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Brief Biography
Living in Southern Maine, I studied Biochemistry at the University of New England, earning my Bachelors degree in 2024. During my undergraduate career I spent time in the lab of Dr. Eva Rose Balog as a research assistant. My role in this lab was expressing, isolating, and purifying SH3 protein from E. coli cells with the goal of assessing the binding affinity of various peptide constructs via isothermal titration calorimetry. Additionally, I spent a summer in Dr. Balog’s lab as a NSF-Funded Summer Research Academic Intern. Through the duration of this internship I spent time expressing, isolating, and purifying human interleukin-6 (IL-6) from E. coli cells. This recombinant IL-6 would be used as ligands for in-line biosensors that would offer real-time, continuous monitoring of IL-6 in biological systems. Currently, my area of focus is directed towards investigating VEGFR1-binding peptides with an overarching goal of studying VEGFR1 signaling pathways in endothelial cells during wound healing.
Publications
- Swanson, Peter C.; Arnold, Galen P.; Curley, Carolyn E.; Wakita, Savannah C.; Waters, Jeffery D.; Balog, Eva Rose M. “Understanding the Phase Behavior of a Multi-Stimuli Responsive Elastin-Like Polymer: Insights from Dynamic Light Scattering Analysis.” Submitted, Nov. 2023, J. Mat. Chem. B
