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Selena Leu

Selena Leu

Education: B.S. in Biochemistry from Sonoma State University

From: Santa Rosa, CA

Joined David Lab: January 2023

Outside of lab: I enjoy painting, gardening and taking care of my leopard geckos.

Research in David Lab: Contributing to the NEIL project.

Previous Research Experience: At Sonoma State University I had the privilege of working with Dr. Lares in her biochemistry research group. My project focused on establishing the gp120 RNA aptamer as a negative control for B cell activating factor receptor (BAFF-R) binding affinity assays. In non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) cancer patients there is an overexpression of binding between B cell activating factor (BAFF) and BAFF-R, which is a transmembrane protein that spans the phospholipid bilayer of B cells. The external portion of this protein is what binds BAFF and this research group investigates different aptamers binding affinity to BAFF-R to learn more about the binding relationship and explore ways of inhibiting BAFF binding BAFF-R.

RSS Science Daily News

  • Scientists’ top 10 bee-magnet blooms—turn any lawn into a pollinator paradise July 7, 2025
    Danish and Welsh botanists sifted through 400 studies, field-tested seed mixes, and uncovered a lineup of native and exotic blooms that both thrill human eyes and lure bees and hoverflies in droves, offering ready-made recipes for transforming lawns, parks, and patios into vibrant pollinator hotspots.
  • Whispers in the womb: How cells “hear” to shape the human body July 7, 2025
    Scientists found that embryonic skin cells “whisper” through faint mechanical tugs, using the same force-sensing proteins that make our ears ultrasensitive. By syncing these micro-movements, the cells choreograph the embryo’s shape, a dance captured with AI-powered imaging and computer models. Blocking the cells’ ability to feel the whispers stalls development, hinting that life’s first instructions […]
  • Breakthrough battery lets physicists reverse entanglement—and rewrite quantum law July 7, 2025
    Scientists have finally uncovered a quantum counterpart to Carnot’s famed second law, showing that entanglement—once thought stubbornly irreversible—can be shuffled back and forth without loss if you plug in a clever “entanglement battery.”
  • How a lost gene gave the sea spider its bizarre, leggy body July 7, 2025
    Scientists have decoded the sea spider’s genome for the first time, revealing how its strangely shaped body—with organs in its legs and barely any abdomen—may be tied to a missing gene. The detailed DNA map shows this ancient creature evolved differently from its spider and scorpion cousins, lacking genome duplications seen in those species. With […]
  • Feeling mental exhaustion? These two areas of the brain may control whether people give up or persevere July 7, 2025
    When you're mentally exhausted, your brain might be doing more behind the scenes than you think. In a new study using functional MRI, researchers uncovered two key brain regions that activate when people feel cognitively fatigued—regions that appear to weigh the cost of continuing mental effort versus giving up. Surprisingly, participants needed high financial incentives […]

Contact:

Dr. Sheila S. David
ssdavid@ucdavis.edu
(530)-752-4280

Department of Chemistry
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616