Michelle Grunberg worked as a Research Associate in the Sabeti Lab in 2020, during which she optimized a CRISPR-based SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic assay. She now works on advancing CRISPR-based tools and diagnostics as a Research Specialist at Princeton University under Dr. Cameron Myhrvold, with plans to apply for PhD programs in the 2021-22 cycle.
Michelle earned her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2020 in Biology. As a UC Leads Scholar at her undergraduate institution, she elucidated virus-host interactions using a rapid, two-step CRISPR-Cas9 system to generate mutant peptides of the Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus in the lab of Dr. Carolina Arias. While in the labs of Dr. Michael Wilson and Dr. Emily Crawford at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in 2019, she pursued the optimization of next generation sequencing for use with patient samples, harnessing the CRISPR-Cas9 technique DASH.