Devon A. Parker, B.S.

My research began after I graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University during the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. I started as a clinical accessioning technician in the COVID-19 testing division of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine's Advanced Precision Medicine Lab. In this role, I assisted in the retrieval, processing, and transfer of COVID-19 patient samples and results as part of JAX-GM's partnership with the State of Connecticut to support the coronavirus testing demands of Connecticut-based hospitals.

In the fall of 2020, I joined the JAX-GM iPSC Neurodegenerative Disease Initiative (iNDI) team as a research assistant under the collaborative mentorship of Dr. Justin McDonough, Associate Director of Cellular Engineering, and Dr. William Skarnes, Professor of the Skarnes Lab. For the next four years, I assisted in the generation and characterization of CRISPR-based genome-edited induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) knock-out, knock-in, and single nucleotide variant lines for the iNDI, Molecular Phenotypes of Null Alleles in Cells (MorPhiC), and Diversity Panel projects, with the latter two studies in collaboration with Dr. Paul Robson. My contributions include high-throughput CRISPR/Cas engineering designs, cell culture, and characterization of variant-engineered iPSC lines, as well as assisting Dr. Skarnes in the role of laboratory manager.