Rachel Lee

Rachel Lee is a Third year at The University of California Santa Barbara. Under the mentorship of Dr. Sumita Pennathur and Professor Kevin Plaxco, she investigates strategies to improve the stability of insulin formulations by studying aggregation behavior and protein–surface interactions under pump-relevant conditions. In this role, she optimized and scaled high-throughput aggregation assays, identified limitations of Thioflavin T due to interactions with molecular chaperones, and validated Congo Red as a more reliable indicator of insulin aggregation. She also developed Python (Jupyter Notebook) and MATLAB data analysis pipelines to extract aggregation kinetics from fluorescence-based assays, enabling quantitative evaluation of formulation performance and supporting experimental design decisions. Through extensive replication studies and data-driven analysis, she contributes to the development of more stable ultra-rapid-acting insulin formulations for next-generation automated insulin delivery systems.