Keyana Cardoza

Current Position:

Physician Assistant

UT Research:

Researching methylation and acetylation pathways that affected copy number variation and gene expression in Danio Rerio

My name is Keyana Cardoza and I graduated from the University of Tampa in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in biology. During my time at UT, I conducted research with Dr. Dobrinski. One of my projects involved researching methylation and acetylation pathways that affected copy number variation and gene expression in Danio Rerio. I also participated in research that looked at why certain populations had a higher death rate from COVID-19, despite having similar infection rates. This study examined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were involved with helping viral replication and looked at populations that had a higher increase of these SNPs to see if they were more susceptible of dying from the disease. My job during this project involved using statistics to compare both male and female death and infection rates from COVID-19 on a statewide and global scale to see if there were any significance among these two groups.

Both research opportunities helped me to get into Physician Assistant School, which I am now currently attending at Mercer University. I will graduate in May 2024, and I am excited to start seeing patients.