Graduate Teaching Assistant
Email: abaksh1@tigers.lsu.edu
Office: 688a Life Sciences Building
Curriculum vitae: Bakshi_CV
In brief:
Arundhati “Runa” Bakshi joined Dr. Joomyeong Kim’s lab in 2011 as an HHMI Summer
Undergraduate Research intern. She was trained in mouse husbandry and her worked involved
elucidating the gene regulatory aspects of the potential PRC2-targeting protein, Aebp2
(Adipocyte Enhancer Binding Protein 2). Later, as an undergraduate research assistant, she was
involved in characterizing the seizure phenotype displayed by mice haploinsufficient for Aebp2
and the DNA methylation patterns of the three alternative promoters for the gene in both normal
and mutant mice, eventually completing her Honors thesis titled “Characterization of Aebp2
mutant mice.” She graduated a university medalist, summa-cum-laude in May 2013 with College
Honors, and a B.S. in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry.
As a graduate student, Bakshi continued her research under the mentorship of Dr. Joomyeong
Kim. She is currently studying the DNA methylation patterns of retrotransposons in normal and
cancer cells of mice and humans, in an effort to demonstrate their potential utility as epigenetic
biomarkers for the early detection of cancer. She is an ardent enthusiast for introducing
undergraduate students to authentic research experiences, both in courses and in research labs.
To that effect, she has mentored HHMI Summer Research interns in Dr. Kim’s lab and has been
a part of leading and developing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in
the Department of Biological Sciences at LSU.
Being a person of myriad interests, Bakshi’s goal in life is to marry her love of introducing
young people to science and her own interests in both the basic and translational side of
epigenetics research in the field of human health and medicine.