Megan Tandar

Pronouns: she/her/they/them

Current Research Project: In the wet-lab, I work in Dr. Christine Elissa Eyler's radiation oncology lab, studying how radiation affects colorectal cancer at an epigenetic level. I've used bioinformatic tools and large-scale CRISPR screens to do so- its fostered my interest in therapeutics/therapeutic development. Additionally, I spent the summer at the Broad Institute, exploring cancer biology and therapeutics from a computational lens, exploring single-cell sequencing and AI methods for discovery. I also do education research at the University of Utah - we're focused on developing a curriculum to implement in rural Utah high schools that sets up students to perform research with U of U professors.

How they got involved with research: I applied through MUSER initially - but found that the first lab I interviewed with didn't seem to be a great fit for me, professionally, even though it was a really interesting field to me. It was really dejecting at first - but I was encouraged by some of my friends and mentors to apply to another lab with a different environment, within a similar field - where I've been in Dr. Eyler's lab ever since. I learnt how to navigate seeking professional and scientific mentorship within lab/research settings- and how to balance expectations between my mentor and myself, and would love to work with SAC to continue to explore and share this!