My involvement in Dr. Freyberg’s lab started during my sophomore year, after developing an interest in neuroscience and psychiatric medicine. After taking an introductory neuroscience course, I became more curious about how researchers went about studying the cellular mechanisms of neurological disorders, and how they created treatments. Among these included Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia. I began looking through different research PI’s lab pages from the Department of Neuroscience’s website to see which work I was most interested in, and found Dr. Freyberg’s page. His lab dealt with studying dopamine interactions in diseases such as Parkinson’s and schizophrenia, which aligned with my interests perfectly! From there, I contacted him through email and set up a meeting with him and the PhD student who works with him to discuss what my potential role in lab could be.
The work that I am currently conducting through this fellowship is related to my second project in Dr. Freyberg’s lab: comparing the concentrations of dopamine and glutamate levels at various developmental stages. The work that I am doing will be used to compare if these levels are similar to levels expressed in conditions like Parkinson’s disease. So far, I have gathered data from all stages of a fly’s developmental period (1st-3rd instar, the latter is depicted in the picture attached to this post). The data looks really promising, which I am so excited about! In the next weeks, I plan to run more assays on the specific time periods within each instar. For example, I will be running samples from flies in the first stage fo the 3rd instar and compare it with the second stage of the 3rd instar. Although I’ve been in lab for more hours than usual, I have been enjoying my time researching. Because it is my independent research, I feel like the experience has been more rewarding and I am more passionate about what I am doing!
Learning new lab techniques or mastering old ones is also going to be beneficial for my future career as a research physician. Knowing how to communicate effectively in my lab and manage my time with school and research will definitely come in handy when managing my own lab group. For those that see themselves going down a similar career path to mine, or for those who just want to experience research, I think the best way to get started is to first figure out what interests you. If you enjoy what you are doing, it will be easier to learn more and have fun while in lab. Once you find a topic/ topics that you like, reach out to research PI’s who’s lab aligns with your interests!
