I am a fourth year Neuroscience major and a Biomedical Research minor planning to pursue a dual MD/PhD degree upon completing my undergraduate studies at UCLA. Currently, I am investigating the ubiquitination of the proteins that function in vesicle exocytosis. Using virally-mediated overexpression of HA-tagged ubiquitin, I immunoprecipitate HA-tagged ubiquitinated proteins and use western blotting techniques to look at the levels and ubiquitination states of proteins that mediate exocytosis. The proteins I investigate include members of the SNARE complex, which is responsible for vesicle fusion to the presynaptic membrane, including synaptotagmin 1, synaptophysin, and SNAP-25. In addition, I prepare samples for analysis by proteomic methods.