Hi, my name is Tara Jessen and I’m a third year Biomedical Engineering undergraduate at the University of California, Davis. I hope to work in applied biomedical engineering in the field of oncology to improve diagnostic and therapeutic processes! I’m currently in the Carney Lab at UC Davis, working on Raman Spectroscopy and the clinical promise of cancer classification using machine learning with the Raman spectra of patients’ biofluids. I also have experience leading an undergraduate microfluidics research lab at UC Davis, where I gained hands-on CAD experience creating molds for a microfluidic chip device and fabrication/manufacturing experience making the device using said molds. This past summer I had the wonderful opportunity to work on a small molecule therapeutic in oncology and performed IND-enabling experiments at Vividion, a biotech company in San Diego.
I enjoy watching formula 1 and learning what goes into making a formula racing car in the formula racing club at UC Davis (FRUCD). I’m a part of the driver controls division of FRUCD, which has control over the steering, brake and accelerator pedals and systems, and such. This club allows me to work with hard-working and passionate engineers and better my mechanical design, manufacturing, and assembly skills.
In my biomedical engineering manufacturing course, I was able to work on a fun machining project of building a microscope!
Skills: MATLAB, Python, SOLIDWORKS, microfluidic device manufacturing, manufacturing machining (lathe, mill, drill press, etc), Analog and Digital circuits, cell culture, and assays: Jess, BCA, and HTRF
Some of my hobbies include soccer, exercising, playing the guitar, photography, reading, and doing puzzles.