Aaron DeLoughery, G1
Aaron DeLoughery grew up in New Castle, Indiana. From a young age he was interested in science, and remembers wanting to be a marine biologist as he grew up. It was during high school, in an AP biology class, that he became interested in molecular biology. As an undergrad, he attended Indiana University, majoring in biology. He started participating in research the summer before his freshman year through the Integrated Freshmen Learning Experience. During this summer, he studied stalk development in the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus by knocking out genes that were identified by a comparative genomics approach in the lab of Dr. Yves Brun. It was this experience that solidified his desires to pursue a career in research.
He continued to do research in Dr. Yves Brun’s lab using both genetic and biochemical approaches to understand the polar organelle development protein PodJ. He carried out some genetic screens to understand PodJ processing and purified the protein for biochemical analysis including far western blotting to detect protein-protein interactions. This experience was funded through participation in the Science and Technology Research Scholars Program (STARS) at Indiana University as well as the Beckman Scholars Program and a Goldwater Scholarship. These opportunities also gave Aaron an opportunity to present his work to other undergraduate students.
Aaron chose to pursue a PhD at Harvard University through the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department for several reasons. First, he liked the smaller size of the program compared to others, which seemed to foster a stronger sense of community that values collaborative efforts. Also, he was just more excited about the research going on in this department compared to other institutes. Aaron is currently rotating in Dr. David Liu’s lab, working on delivering proteins and nucleic acids into mammalian cells using a supercharged GFP variant. His broad research interests include gene regulation, RNA, cell signaling, and microbial diversity. Aaron says he has really enjoyed his semester in the MCB department and looks forward to exploring more labs and learning about all that Harvard has to offer.
