VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER, NASHVILLE, TN, JUNE-AUGUST 2022 (FULLTIME)
Research Intern
Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism
I supported Fiona Harrison, PhD. during the summer before Senior High School year. Dr. Harrison’s research interests focus on using mouse models to understand how specific nutritional factors can impact the development of Alzheimer’s disease. I have independently worked on two main projects. The first project concentrated on how higher or lower manganese diets can worsen motor functions, which is a key signal for brain damage and a sign of Alzheimer’s. I observed Alzheimer’s and wild-type mice with high and low Mn diets suspended by their tails and gave them a score from 0 to 3 based on their movements. I then wrote an abstract, which consisted of a small explanation about my process and how I scored them, and I will be included as a contributor in the final publication “Motor function deficits in the 12-month-old female 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease”. The second project focused on the same mice, but this time I studied the Mn concentration in different parts of the brain and the liver post-mortem by completing protein analysis. The lab will use these findings to analyze the exact concentration of Mn to see if it has a significant impact on brain function.