Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Simran Malhora, and as Professor [? Gann ?]
introduced, I am a neuroscience and behavior major.
So this summer, I spent six weeks
at the Strittmatter Lab, which is affiliated
with the school of medicine, and I looked at various pathways
affecting the progression of Alzheimer's Disease.
So I'm an international student.
I'm from India.
And it can be really challenging to find an internship,
especially in the States.
So the one thing that I would highly
recommend you do before you get into the process
is really check your eligibility to apply,
because a lot of the programs like SURF and REU,
you need to be either an American citizen
or a green card holder-- neither of which, I was.
I sent out a lot of emails.
So I emailed about 50 labs for the internship, and yeah.
It gets to a lot.
But also, I highly recommend that you
attend guest lectures, both at Mount Holyoke
and in the five college area on Pioneer Valley.
Not only does this help you learn more
about the ongoing research in your field,
it also helps you communicate with researchers and PhD
students, which I think is a great experience.
And finally, reach out to the alumni associations,
because they really want to help you,
and they have the great tips and tricks up their sleeves.
So before you get to your internship,
just generally research the area, transportation,
accommodation, which I think is the most important thing,
because you want to be comfortable in your environment
and really try it.
So again, the alumni association helped me out
with accommodation, because I knew nothing
of New Haven and Connecticut.
So the Strittmatter Lab-- the principal investigator
is Dr. Stephen Strittmatter-- and I worked primarily
with a graduate student who was Santiago Salazar.
And the lab focuses on two primary aspects.
One is we neuro-repair, and the other is neuro-degeneration.
So under repair, they look at spinal chord injury, stroke,
growth and repair of the axons.
And under degeneration, they focused
on Alzheimer's disease, modules, and mice, and [INAUDIBLE],
to mention.
So I was working with the Alzheimer's Disease aspect.
What is Alzheimer's Disease?
It's a neurodegenerative disease that
currently affects 44 million people,
and the numbers are just growing.
Two of the main symptoms are memory loss and dementia.
And right now, the only cure we have is symptomatic.
So you can cure somebody's confusion,
but you cannot prevent the degeneration from occurring.
And a lot of the medication available right
now has lithium, which is extremely toxic to the cells.
So there are two speculative causes,
one of it being the amyloid plques,
and the other, the neurofibrillary tangles,
or the tau tangles.
Very quickly, the plaques are formed
by beta-amyloid, which is a peptide with a yeast naturally
in the cell.
So as it accumulates, it forms something called an oligomer,
which is an insoluble product.
This further develops to form the plaque and disrupts
intercellular communication.
Tau is a protein that holds together the microtubules
within the cell.
And what happens is when it's hyperphosphorylated,
which means when a phosphate group is added to the tau
protein, it disengages and forms clumps.
So these clumps come together and completely
destroy the cells in a communication system.
So the great thing about the lab that I worked with
is that it combined both causes.
So we took the a beta oligomers which are insoluble,
which effect the PRP, which is a cellular PRioN protein, which
led to the downward phosphorylation of tau
forming tau [INAUDIBLE].
So as the a beta oligomer attaches to the PRP,
it opens the channel called m [INAUDIBLE], which
initiates something called [INAUDIBLE],
which is a protein.
And then this downward cascade takes place.
However, in all of this, there is a protein called Pic2.
It's not the same as [INAUDIBLE], pic,
but Pic2 is a protein that's usually
associated with learning.
So my goal in the lab was to characterize
the expression of the Pic2 protein in the Alzheimer's mice
module.
So some of the responsibilities I had
were developing an immunostaining protocol
for this study, slicing grains, and really imaging the cells,
as well as presenting weekly at the lab meetings.
For the immunostaining protocol, I
used a procedure called antigen retrieval, which
basically adds primary and secondary antibodies.
And what they do is they're attached
to something that flouresces.
So when you shoot a certain wavelength of light at them,
they tag your protein.
And that essentially lights up.
So the slicing technique, I used a machine called a Vibratome--
or as we fondly call it, the brain slicer.
And yes, this Petri dish over here
is actually a Petri dish of mice again--
and not blueberries, as friends of mine once pointed out.
And essentially, what happens is the blade
goes through the tissue, and you can take a paintbrush
and collect the brain slices individually
so you don't damage the tissue afterwards,
sort of [INAUDIBLE].
Here are some images that I took as part of the lab.
These are neurons.
And the red area represents Pic2, which
is the protein of interest.
And the green areas, only in this image,
they are tagged for Phospho-Tau, which
is the phosphorylated tau.
So conclusion.
Well, there's a lot I learned over
the summer, and that included, don't believe everything
you read in the papers.
The media tends to sensationalize reports,
especially with regard to Alzheimer's Disease.
And then ask lots, and lots, and lots of questions.
Everyone is going to benefit from being
on the same wavelength.
Be open minded, because learning is not only
going to occur within the lab setting,
but it is also going to happen outside of,
because you're on your own.
And in my case, it was a multicultural household
that I was part of.
See, there was a lot of cross-cultural experience.
And finally, talk to your lab mates,
because you will be spending a lot of time with them.
And if you are interested in graduate school,
they can really help.
So thank you all.
[APPLAUSE]