Tessa House, BS

Associate Research Specialist

I am excited to be starting as an Associate Research Specialist in the Tsai Lab at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. I am originally from San Francisco and I recently received my BS in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology with a minor in Bioinformatics from the University of California, Los Angeles. At UCLA I worked in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Long and conducted multiple independent research projects, including my most recent project on using CRISPR and over-expression to investigate redundancy in SCPL22-29 in Arabidopsis thaliana. During the summer in 2023, I worked at Sandia National Laboratories as a Research and Development Intern executing a new technique for isolating bacteriophages. I also continued my work during my final school year by utilizing bioinformatics to analyze the results we obtained.

Research interests: I previously mostly have experience working with genes in Arabidopsin thaliana and bacteria/bacteriophages, but I have always been very interested in studying cancer and pediatric cancer. I also think utilizing bioinformatics to study problems in molecular biology is intriguing as well!

Favorite food: Sushi, probably spicy tuna if I had to choose one roll.

Beverage of choice and protocol for preparation: Most likely an iced chai or some type of iced tea.

Favorite lab technique: I would have to say CRISPR as I have had to do a lot of it for my most recent project and it is interesting to see what phenotypes result.

Hobbies: Hiking, skiing, running, backpacking, going to the beach or to coffee shops.