Andrew Braun

Background

About Andrew Braun

Hello, My name is Drew Braun and I am a graduate of SIUe with a Bachlors in Mathematics and a Masters in Biology. I have a teaching certificate in life sciences and mathematics. Research Assistant Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (August 2021-May 2023): Skills: Confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, bacteria plating, growth of eukaryotic amoeba, bacteriophage titering, bacteriophage purification, solid and liquid media prep, sterile technique. • Researched on model organism Dictyostelium discoideum and deploying target-specific bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections and optimized infection model. • Created complex buffers and media for bacterial plating to give temporary and long-term stocks for the lab. • Imaged microbial slides with confocal microscopy to investigate method of bacterial entry into D. discoideum. Helped explain bacterial method of entry and infection prevalence. • Developed flow cytometry methodology for amoeba infected with fluorescent Paraburkholderia bacteria. Helped distinguish infection prevalence in bacteriophage treated and untreated groups. Saint Louis University Research Technician: June 2023-August 2024 Skills: Cell culturing, transfection, qPCR, PCR, restriction digests, nucleic acid and protein purification, Southern blotting, Bradford protein quantification, Western blotting, protein induction, SDS-Page Gel casting, agarose gel casting, bacterial transformation, plasmid extraction, ELISA testing. • Performed fundamental cell culturing and transfection procedures to investigate potential HBV inhibitors. • Purified elusive RNAase H protein and induced E. coli to produce mutated forms of RNAase H using IPTG. • Resolved nucleic acids using EtBr gels. Resolved HBV capsid and RNase H protein using hand-made polyacrylamide gels. • Utilized Schrodinger to determine potential drug targets of HBV RNAaseH and polymerase. • Lab Inventory Management Experience. Maintenance of machines, creating purchase requests and goods receipts, and taking inventory of compounds using CDD Vault to maintain lab space using Workday. Saint Louis University Research Scientist: August 2024-Present • Fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry to determine transfection efficiency with HepG2 and Hek293 cells. • Deployed ELISA-based Western and capsid blotting techniques to investigate core protein and capsid accumulation in inhibitor treated cell lines. • Developed transfection methods for HepG2 and Hek293 cells to develop cell-based drug assays.