Carter Wilkins

I earned my Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and Master of Science in Biology (Molecular, Cellular, Developmental and Neural Biology concentration) from the University at Albany, SUNY, in 2025 and 2026, respectively. I joined the Berglund Lab toward the end of my freshman year through the 2023 Summer Bioinformatics Research Program. I have served as a group leader in the research program for both college and high school students in the subsequent years while continuing my own research. 

During my undergraduate years at UAlbany, I completed a project analyzing the effects of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) on gene expression in cardiac tissue. At the end of 2024 during my senior year, I joined the +1 combined degree program where I began a second project that continued throughout my graduate studies.

My graduate research focused on comparing the spliceopathies of DM1 and late-onset Fuchs' endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), another disease thought to be mediated by the CTG repeat expansion and toxic CUG RNA-MBNL mechanism that observed in DM1. I successfully wrote and defended a computational thesis based on this work, primarily relying on bioinformatic analyses of publicly available RNA sequencing datasets. 

During the summer of 2026, while serving as a group leader for the High School Bioinformatics Summer Camp, I will prepare and submit a manuscript based on my thesis and additional analyses completed after my defense. 

I am excited to contribute to a field of research that has been developing over the past decade and help deepen our understanding of RNA-mediated spliceopathies and converging mechanisms of CTG repeat expansion disorders.