| Affiliations: | STEM Research Leadership |
| Project Leader: | Sarah Berny
sberny@tamu.edu Veterinary Integrative Biosciences |
| Faculty Mentor: | Jianrong Li, Ph.D |
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Meeting Times:
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TBA. Weekend and evening flexibility is preferred for trainings. Open schedules Monday afternoons allow attendance to Li Lab meetings. |
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Team Size:
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4 |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Guided exploration of neuroscience research focused on animal models, CNS cell interactions, neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. Opportunity to become a full member of the Li lab research group learning a range of skills, aid in professional development, attending conferences and authorship on publication.
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Team Needs:
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Prior research and research animal experience is not required but please include a brief statement of any such experience or how you anticipate you will apply your coursework lab experiences to research practices. General Skills/Abilities: Resourcefulness, time-management, organization, diligent recording, intrinsic motivation/investment in experiments and self-edification, ability to synergize with others (learning, helping, teaching), critical thinking, adaptability, pre-requisite or concurrent neuroscience knowledge.Those with flexibility to start shadowing/training in Spring 2024 and anticipate committing to the lab the lab for 4 or more semesters will be given priority. Entry level, constant tasks in the lab are genotyping, cryosectioning, and image/behavior analysis as well as basic laboratory maintenance assignments Students participate in immunofluorescence staining and microscopy as they progress. New members need to be proactive about skill mastery so independence can be achieved allowing more flexible laboratory times and new training opportunities. While mouse handling tasks are an opportunity, a multi semester commitment will be established first. I would like one person who’d commit to pursuing animal tasks as their major role who could aid with colony management, treatments, behavior tests, sample collections, etc. Anyone predisposed to research careers, laboratory animal veterinary medicine or is otherwise invested would be a great fit. Students start with 5-9 regularly scheduled hours. Most projects will require 9+ hours/week in future semesters for comprehensive experiments resulting in posters and paper figures.CVs and transcripts are required in first contact email (“ARP” in subject line). Please limit the start of your message to a brief, to the point intro addressing the points requested; a more elaborate message can follow bellow. |
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Description:
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While white mater dystrophy has been characterized across a number of developmental and neurodegenerative disorders, extensive research into white matter alterations/contributions across each disorder have been lacking in the field of neuroscience until recent decades. One of our labs current focuses is Alzheimer’s Disease in which an extensive number of late onset /sporadic AD patients experience white matter loss prior to clinical symptomatic disease. Taken together with recent findings that the second greatest risk factor for LOAD, bridging integrator 1 (BIN1), is highly expressed in oligodendrocytes (OLs), the myelinating cells of the central nervous system, we are endeavoring to elucidate function(s) of Bin1 in OLs and how alternations in OL Bin1 expression levels could contribute to AD disease states. I am currenting characterizing the effects of Bin1 loss in oligodendrocytes in otherwise wildtype adult mice (Aim1). Up ramping work consists of Bin1 function determination through continued localization experiments as well as cell culture experiments (Aim2). Coinciding in-vivo work is characterizing the combined effect of oligodendroglial Bin1 depletion (Cre-Lox-P) with neuropathology (Tauopathy Alzheimer’s Disease Mice) and how the disease progression is altered (Aim3). |