Abstract: Drug addiction is a serious and prolific mental illness involving persistent relapse despite sincere efforts to abstain. There has been ample research on the neurobiological consequences of chronic drug use, but far less emphasis is placed on a premorbid genetic predisposition that conveys vulnerability to develop drug addiction While the genetic contribution to alcoholism is firmly established, identification of genes contributing to drug addiction has suffered from a lack of large-scale human genetic data relating to highly addictive drugs such as opiates and psychostimulants. Human and animal studies have found that novelty-seeking behavior is a heritable intermediate phenotype that predicts vulnerability to drug addiction. Rats that exhibit high novelty place preference (NPP) also exhibit high cocaine seeking/addictive behaviors. Thus, NPP can serve as an intermediate phenotype to identify genes associated with addiction through use of Forward Genetics. Once these genes are identified, we can use a reverse genetics KO approach to gather a stronger dataset for this genetic vulnerability to addiction.
What Does Research Mean To You? Honestly if there’s one word that comes to me when I think of research is PERSEVERANCE!! Time after time, experiment after experiment, you will not get the results you want. Nothing will add up. The data will seem like it’s all over the place, but eventually, with enough perseverance, the work begins to paint a picture. You just have to be patient. Not only with the data, but with the learning process as well. I remember one of the basic lab procedures in my lab was the IV surgery we had to do on many of the rats/mice there. It took me a whole round of practice rats before I was anywhere near getting that procedure down. Surgery after surgery I was let down, but once I FINALLY got it down, I remember how great it felt. Every procedure will feel like you’ll never get it, but trust me, YOU WILL! You just have to trust the process!!!
Tell Us About Your Journey A prevalent part of my research journey was shaped by the experiences that I had growing up. For example, my mom is a seizure patient. I distinctly remember the first time I saw my mom’s hands stiffen up and then begin to jerk rapidly. When I was younger, my mom always had absence seizures. Then one day her seizures transitioned to a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Although it was a horrifying scene for a nine-year-old to watch, it made me ask plenty of questions from a young age. What changes had taken place in her brain for it to make a switch like that all of a sudden? What mechanisms were taking place in the brain that made it behave in such a way in the first place? Was there any cure or treatment for this?
Questions like these along with others lead me to join my first neuro lab at UT Dallas to better understand how the various mechanisms in our brain work along with what was being done to combat neurological diseases like the one my mother, and millions of others had. After spending a year and half in my PTSD lab at UTD, I began to have a better grasp at the way our brain develops and processes various diseases. Being in this lab, however, only further instigated the questions that I had. This led me to apply for the Green Fellows program, which would allow for me to immerse myself full-time in a research lab.
An opportunity like the Green Fellowship was a unique one. I was pushed to think outside the box like I never have before. Despite the intense rigor of the program, it was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. Being placed in full time drug addiction lab for the first time allowed for me to see firsthand the research that’s being done to combat such a deadly disease. Seeing this was truly inspiring especially knowing that my lab is just one example of the millions of ongoing research projects that are taking place to tackle and find solutions to some of the most growing problems in today’s world.
How Did the Pandemic Affect Me? A majority of your first few weeks in the program is used to train you on all the procedures and techniques. Just as I was begging to get these down, the pandemic unfortunately cut our green experience short. Although the program didn’t get to run its full course, I still got to take plenty away with me because my mentors Alex, Helena, and Dan all welcomed me into their lab family with open arms since day one. I learned from them not only the loads of lab techniques, but to always search for more solutions than one, to continue asking as many questions as I can, and to always always think outside the box!
Where am I now? I will be learning Arabic for a few years and then haven’t figured out what’s next after that yet!
Advice for Future Green Fellows
Write everything down you guys!! I can recall plenty of times when my mentor would teach me a new lab technique and then ask me to go do it on my own the second time and my memory had completely defeated me! Writing down the procedures/techniques you’re learning is so important throughout the journey. Also, you’ll here this one a lot, but seriously don’t be afraid to ask questions. The people who will train are you are some of the most knowledgeable in the field you’re in and can provide you with some of the best advice and guidance. Seriously, I wouldn’t blame my mentor if he hated me for how many questions I asked, but more likely than not, your mentors will understand the positions you’re in and only appreciate you for the questions you ask. The fact that you’re most likely the only undergrad in your lab is scary, yes, but just remember you are there because you have what it takes! Keep that in mind!!