Avatar

Kritin Karkare

Bioinformatics Staff Research Associate

UC San Diego Biology Teaching Labs

I'm currently a staff research associate specializing in bioinformatics at the University of California, San Diego Biology Instructional Labs, helping set up undergrad lab classes with materials/solutions and operating the Illumina MiSeq DNA Sequencing machine. I graduated from UC San Diego in June 2019 with a Bachelors of Science in Bioengineering: Bioinformatics and two minors in Cognitive Science and Japanese Studies.

I'm also half Thai and half Indian, so my culture is also extremely important to me. I care a lot about representation for Southeast Asian countries, particularly Thai culture because it gets overshadowed.

I am also a freelance science writer and data journalist and on the side I help develop science communication resources for undergrads at UCSD too. I previously wrote for the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering Communications team as an undergrad. I'm a member of the San Diego Science Writers Association.

Other things I've do/done:

  • run three half marathons. My fastest 5K is a 18:35 and my half is 1 hr and 51 min. I like long distance running!
  • play violin, viola, and percussion in our anime/videogame orchestra at UC San Diego.
  • arrange and conduct music for said orchestra.
  • run and organize competitive Pokemon videogame tournaments
  • can say the alphabet backwards in less than two seconds
  • like hot chocolate, Capri-Sun, Hi-C Fruit Punch, and Nerds.

In the future, I'm interested in pursuing a Ph.D and then becoming a teaching professor. Becoming an astronaut is a dream of mine too. To the stars!

Interests

  • bioinformatics + computational neuroscience
  • not getting to the games or books on my videogame backlog
  • hot chocolate, capri sun, and Hi-C fruit punch

Education

  • Bioengineering with a Specialization in Bioinformatics, 2019

    University of California, San Diego

 
 
 
 
 

Bioinformatics Staff Research Associate

UC San Diego Biology Teaching Labs

Sep 2019 – Present California
Responsibilities include:

  • Running the Illumina MiSeq machine for the BIMM 121 (Microbiology) and BILD 4 (Intro to Biology) lab classes
  • Process bioinformatics data from MiSeq for use in the lab classes
  • Prepare reagents, bacterial culture, and aliquots for lab classes Skills acquired:
  • Illumina MiSeq Library Preparation
  • Illumina MiSeq Machine use
 
 
 
 
 

Student Writer

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Apr 2018 – Sep 2019 California
Wrote 21 articles about student organizations, graduate student research, and professional events over the course of 18 months under the supervision of the Jacobs School of Engineering Communications team. Articles, press releases, and blog pieces featured on ThisWeek at UC San Diego website and Jacobs School of Engineering blog.
 
 
 
 
 

Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience

May 2017 – Jun 2019 California
P.I. Tzyy-Ping Jung. Combining deep learning and neural networks with transfer learning for Brain-Computer Interface improvement. Build convolutional neural networks (CNN) with Keras to identify SSVEP data from patients. Presented CNN research at a IEEE Brain Initiative Conference in 2018.