Student Research Spotlight: Tina Li Year: Sophomore Major: Bioinformatics Faculty Mentor: Erich Baker, Ph.D.
From Left to Right: Dr. Erich Baker, Ting-Chen Wang , Tina Li, Iris Chen, and Samuel Shenoi
Scientia 2020 | 65
Student Spotlight
In light of the recent coronavirus outbreaks that began reaching headlines early last December, student researchers here at Baylor have used the current situation as an opportunity to examine the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The research team is composed of four undergraduates, all of whom are bioinformatics majors, and includes Tina Li (‘22 ), Sam Shenoi (‘21), Ting-Chen Wang (‘21), and Iris Chen (‘21). Their research article, titled “Phylogenetics analysis of SARS-CoV-2 within known coronavirus diversity”, seeks to analyze the SARS-CoV-2 virus from three perspectives: intergenic analysis between SARS-CoV-2 and other Coronaviridae viruses, intragenic analysis within the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the SARS-CoV-2 relationship to the human proteome. The lab has approached these three perspectives by collecting genomic and protein sequences from SARS-CoV-2 isolates, other viruses from the Coronaviridae family, and human proteins. With these sequences, the team utilizes BLAST software to determine similarity between the sequences. The research currently involves solo work, with weekly group meetings to evaluate the objectives they aim to achieve with their data. Beginning the project also came with considerable challenges. New sequences are added to the global reference databases almost daily, so proper data collection and result reproduction have become paramount. The team has managed to accomplish this by automating much of the work which allows for a fast turnaround when new information about the virus comes to light. Regarding her favorite aspect of their research, Wang said that she finds it rewarding to be able to study a topic that is currently at an early stage of discovery. Since knowledge about the novel virus and its transmission is limited, Wang also acknowledges that it is oftentimes difficult to gather enough data to hypothesize the generalized structure of the virus. For students interested in undergraduate research, Shenoi recommends that they begin to investigate their research interests and find a faculty mentor who specializes in researching those certain topics. For this project, all four lab members took the initiative to reach out to Dr. Baker and propose the idea of conducting SARS-CoV-2 research on campus.
