Hello everyone! 

My name is Naiya Patel and I am a rising sophomore in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. I am on the pre-med track majoring in neuroscience and minoring in Economics and Chemistry with a certificate in the Conceptual Foundations of Medicine. Outside of academics, I really enjoy tennis, baking, and creative writing. This summer, I am thrilled to be part of the Brackenridge Fellowship and am eager to learn about other students’ research projects. I am especially interested in witnessing the great diversity that can be found within research.

This summer, I am conducting research in the Catov Lab at Magee Women’s Research Institute under the guidance of Dr. Robin Gandley, an assistant research professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. She is an expert in microvascular health with a background in toxicology. The Catov Lab closely examines the health of women with preeclampsia, focusing both on cardiovascular health as well as cognitive health. Preeclampsia is essentially hypertension during pregnancy. Specifically, the Window Brain Study, an ongoing research study at the Catov Lab, is focusing on different aspects of cognitive decline for midlife women with and without preeclampsia. 

For my summer project, I am currently in the process of pulling pre-existing plasma samples from the Window Brain Study. These samples are of women who delivered at Magee 15 years ago. Half of the samples will be from women with preeclampsia during pregnancy and half of the samples will be from women without preeclampsia. I will be running assays on these samples, testing a total of 37 neuroinflammation biomarkers. These biomarkers are all tied to cognitive decline later in life. I hope to uncover relationships between levels of certain biomarkers and race (white/black or African American) along with the influence of preeclampsia. It is well accepted that the effects of preeclampsia do not simply end after pregnancy and uncovering the lasting impacts can pave the way for appropriate preventative medical interventions early on in life. Women are historically under researched and such research projects can help address these health disparities. It is known that black women have higher chances of developing cognitive decline, including Alzheimer’s disease. Black women in particular are also underrepresented in research. Thus, by studying both white and black women in this project, progress can be made to understand and address such racial health differences.

In the future, I aspire to attend medical school and become a physician, while continuing to research. I am very passionate about women’s health and this fellowship has given me the opportunity to continue researching at Catov Lab and explore my interests. I hope that this summer research project can help consolidate my future career goals, especially the possibility of pursuing an MD-PhD degree. It is an honor to be able to conduct clinical research that can contribute to the existing medical knowledge about women’s health. I hope to witness an increase in such research addressing women’s health in the near future.