Shaela Nestor

40/Week

$60,000/Year

• Conducted quality assurance assessments on company products to ensure adherence to standards
• Updated and maintained records with accurate and current data as required
• Prepared and delivered monthly reports outlining project progress and key performance indicators
• Evaluated the compatibility of company products with those of partner organizations
• Supported fermentation processes in the production of company products

40 hours/Week

$46,000/Year

• Researched and proposed new methodology for psychrophilic bacterial extraction and characterization from arctic soil samples
• Contributed 20-30 bacterial isolates to the ICE-COLD (Innovative, Collaborative, Exploratory Cold regions Organismal Library for Discovery) library
• Revived, characterized, and conducted various experimentation on 50 bacterial isolates for the DARPA-ICE (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency- Ice Control of cold Environments) program
• Formulate quarterly reports of project progress
• Performed aseptic decontamination of ancient permafrost cores
• Engage in oral presentations of data collection, efficiency, and experimental alterations monthly
• Actively engage in safety briefs and training as required

• Modernized the ICE-COLD 160+ microbial isolate library and updated it with pertinent data
• Designed and conducted a freeze-thaw cyling experiment on arctic soil samples to extract and charcterize microbes with antifreeze proteins
• Characterized 12 bacterial isolates that were isolated from the freeze-thaw cycling study
• Proposed and assessed new protocols for microbial isolation

• Performed routine laboratory maintenance on various equipment
• Monitored inventory of laboratory chemicals and materials
• Structured and prepared 3 labs for current CCGA students
• Aliquoted and prepared reagents needed for experimentation
• Monitored lab safety regulations and ensured compliance with safety procedures