Jaskeerat Gujral, COL ’25, Long Island, NY
Over the summer, I had the honor of working at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) under Dr. Virginia Lee. I gained valuable wet lab skills and techniques during my time. During my time at Penn, I have been conducting clinical research, and so this experience was valuable because I was able to develop new research skills that would allow me to understand the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
I chose to work with alpha-synuclein, which is a protein that is heavily involved with the
development of PD, because I had a family member who suffered from the condition. I worked on a project that focused on developing cell culture strategies to examine the relationship between Synphilin-1 and a-Synuclein in PD. While I was working on this project, I was able to develop core lab skills, such as cell culture, splitting of cells, Immunocytochemistry (ICC), and Fluorescence Microscopy. While researching this topic, I understood the complexity of PD, especially the pathology involved in causing the disease. At the beginning of August, I presented my work to the lab.
Alongside working on PD research, I was able to work with human brain tissue samples. Through this, I was able to get a deep understanding of neuroanatomy, as I was able to apply some of my knowledge that I gained from taking the course “Introduction to Brain and Behavior.” I was also able to learn how to extract Tau proteins, which are involved in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease, from human brain tissue. Tau Extractions were interesting because you can study the proteins that are involved in AD. Overall, I am grateful for this opportunity, and I will continue to work at CNDR during the school year!
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
