Thank You BSURF!

First and foremost the opportunities to glimpse what research is like in BSURF were plentiful. We heard talks from revolutionary scientists and trailblazers, read countless papers, and presented our work in a variety of methods. These activities revealed examples of...

Over the past few weeks of faculty talks, we have learned about innovative research on organisms from archaea to song birds. One particularly fascinating creature, studied by Dr. Sheila Patek, is the mantis shrimp. These crustaceans have club-like appendages which...

CTNND2 is an astrocyte-enriched Autism risk gene that encodes for the protein delta-catenin. Preliminary experiments revealed that knockdown of delta-catenin in astrocytes impairs astrocyte survival and decreases astrocyte processes both in vitro and in vivo. Astrocyte morphology coincides with synapse...

I have been thinking about my project from one direction. As I am looking at a specific gene linked with autism, I know the process of how the gene is translated into mRNA then into a protein. After that the...

Dr. Cagla Eroglu PI, runs an organized and efficient lab very unlike Daenerys season 8. Also debatably unlike the Mother of Dragons, Cagla, Mother of Astrocytes, enjoys working with her lab members. Outside of weekly meetings, She schedules one-on-one meetings...

Delta-catenin is a protein that was believed to be neuron specific but spoiler alert it is in astrocytes as well! In the catinen-cadherin complex, delta-catenin is important in cell adhesion by cadherins between pre and post synaptic neurons. Literature on...

My familiarity with the anatomy of the brain is extremely limited as is my knowledge of biology in general. During my first week when I was learning to use the cryostat to take coronal slices of a mouse brain, my...