Dr. Ephraim Tsalik MD/PhD visited Hackley’s ISRP students

During his virtual visit on January 21 with Independent Science Research Program students, Dr. Ephraim Tsalik MD/PhD spoke about how his research has demonstrated the ability to utilize Machine Learning (ML) to analyze the imprint a bacteria or a virus has on the gene expression of your immune response to categorize what is causing your symptoms.

Have you ever had a fever, runny nose, phlegm of another color? Imagine if you could take a sample of your blood and in an hour, a device the size of a Bluetooth speaker could tell you whether or not you have a bacterial, viral, or another type of infection, and then you could be prescribed the right medication. It sounds like science fiction, but that is exactly what Dr. Ephraim Tsalik (uncle of Bella Wasserman ’23) is working on. 

Our students enjoyed his visit for a variety of reasons, ranging from the similarity of using ML and classification to study a problem, to how his project combined ideas taught in the Cellular Biology course. We wish Dr. Tsalik the best of luck on his project! 

All alumni/parents/family with present or past experiences in scientific research have a standing invitation to visit the Independent Science Research Program. Our future scientists love hearing your stories, and these talks are formative to their careers. If you are interested, please reach out to Dr. Andrew Ying.
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