Background
Aaron is South Georgian from Camden County, Georgia who enjoys programming, medical research, reading contemporary fiction, social functions, and dancing. Aaron is Puerto Rican and multi-racial.
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sc.B. in Chemical-Biological Engineering - 2009
Emory University School of Medicine - MD - In-progress
Georgia Institute of Technology - Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering - In-progress
Research
The biomembrane force probe is an instrument capable of measuring forces enacted upon cell surface receptors following engagement with ligands. Improving the utility of the biomembrane force probe includes refining the optical instrumentation, hardware, and software associated with the biomembrane force probe. Aaron is improving the biomembrane force probe instrument through investigating the current instruments implementation as well as re-engineering the instrument for more high-throughput and sensitive probing the cell surface receptor biomechanics and respective signal transduction.
Macrophage-1 antigen (Mac-1/CD11b) is an integrin complement receptor found on the surface of antigen-presenting cells responsible for stimulating phagocytosis. R77H mutations in Mac-1 are associated with the development of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) an systemic autoimmune disease with a higher incidence among American's of Afro-Caribbean decent. Aaron is investigating the biomechanics associated with receptor activation and function under the co-engagement of other immunological receptors (Fc receptor) to investigate if co-engagement of R77H mutated receptor is associated with dysfunctional signal transduction contributing to the pathogenesis of SLE.