Benny Mosqueira

Experience

• 

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  Sept 2018 - Jul 2022

  Hold the only undergraduate student chair on the committee. I help to identify how structural and systemic racism, sexism, and other forms of bias manifest in the instruction, mentoring, research, staffing, community-building, and overall climate of the division. I propose actions to eliminate these biases, promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and review incidents of bias affecting members of the division. Lead researcher on a collaboration between Susan Carpenter Lab and Angela Brooks Lab. Research focuses on developing computational approaches to analyze genome and transcriptome sequencing data. My project focuses on determining the differential expression of lincRNA-cox2, which has a dual regulatory role in cis and trans within bone-marrow-derived macrophages in resident and recruited alveolar macrophages (AMs). I completed an RNA-sequencing pipeline to determine lincRNA-Cox2 and other lncRNA expression kinetics within resident and recruited AMs.

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

    Sept 2020 - Jul 2022

  • Undergraduate Researcher, Angela Brooks Lab

    Aug 2020 - Jul 2022

  • Undergraduate Researcher, Susan Carpenter Lab

    Sept 2018 - Jul 2022
• 

  UCLA

  Jun 2021 - Aug 2021

  Undergraduate Researcher, Matteo Pellegrini Lab

  Paid summer research experience funded by the UC Leads program. I joined the Pellegrini lab for ten weeks and conducted dry lab research in epigenetics. The lab works to develop computational programs to interpret epigenetic data. During my time in the lab, I was able to develop a computational program of my own.

• 

  UCLA

  Jul 2022 - now

  Research Assistant

  In the Farmer lab, we aim to decipher the inter-cellular and intra-cellular mechanisms that drive craniofacial development. We investigate the tissue interactions and gene regulatory networks that establish and maintain skeletal progenitors during embryonic and postnatal development.