Shreya Nirmalan, MS

• BS in Computer Science, University of Florida Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
• MS in Medical Sciences with a focus in Molecular Medicine, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine
• Currently a third-year student in the MGG MD-PhD program

During high school I was always very interested in mathematics and biological sciences, and learned basic programming in Python and Java. This lead me to earn my BS in Computer Sciences while on the pre-medicine track where I became interested in genetics research and bioinformatics. I studied mRNA-miRNA interactions in the setting of Epstein Barr infection of B lymphocytes to ascertain how the virus establishes latency. Afterwards, I earned my master’s at the University of South Florida where I helped in characterizing the microbiome, specifically bacteriophages, of Ciona intestinalis, a sea squirt that could be a potential animal model for studying host microbiome interactions. I chose to join the MD-PhD program at Wayne State because I hope to practice as a physician scientist in the future, combining my interests in clinical medicine and background as a computer scientist. I am interested in understanding gene-environment interactions in the setting of autoimmune diseases including Inflammatory Bowel Disease and hope to further hone my skills as a scientist through the Molecular Medicine and Genetics program.