Stress: Adolescence through Adulthood

Anisha Kaldindi

I am in the research group of Dr. Gretchen Neigh in the Department of Physiology in the School of Medicine. I have been working on a project that involves looking at how chronic adolescent stress affects factors of the stress axis in adulthood.

We have developed a protocol in which our animals experience chronic stress during the adolescent period and then we collect the brain tissue in adulthood. Since we are interested in specific regions in the brain we use a machine called a cryostat that allows us to make very thin slices of the brain. There is a lot of literature on the anatomy of the brain in rats (our model system), so we are able to use a book called the Rat Brain Atlas, to look at the structural elements of the brain and determine where we can collect the tissue from the region we are interested in.

For us to understand how the stress factors are affected in adulthood, we use antibodies (a way to mark the factors we are interested in) and then analyze these images to see how groups that have experienced stress differ from groups that have not.

The protocol to do this had not been established in the lab previously, so I had the opportunity to work with people in our group to develop this protocol. This first involved optimizing the antibody concentrations. Since antibodies serve as a marker for the factors we are interested in, we need to make sure that there is no nonspecific binding. To do this we tried varied concentrations of antibodies. We then used imaging software to determine if we were getting any nonspecific binding. This has been a long process and we have finally developed an optimal procedure.

Our next step was to determine how to image and analyze the data.

Currently, I am working on this while doing some final optimization of the protocol to determine where in the brain region of interest we need to focus on. At times this long drawn out process of troubleshooting has been frustrating but with the guidance of my mentors we have been able to develop a successful protocol. Through this project there have been days where a sample we run showed promise and it was these victories that have helped me sustain optimism and determination to finish this project.

-Anisha Kaldindi

Comments

Why Research Wednesday: Aamna's Story

Aamna Soniwala is a sophomore majoring in Human Health (on the pre-dental track) with a minor in Sociology. URP's Research Ambassador Arielle Segal had the pleasure of interviewing Aamna about her research experiences. Here it is: What research do you do on campus? How long have you been doing it? “I work under Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan with Dr. Jithin Varghese in the Hubert Department of Global Health at Rollins – specifically within the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center. I started during my second semester of my first year, researching global health equity in diabetes precision medicine.” How did you get started in your research? “I took HLTH 210 last spring, and Dr. Narayan was one of our asynchronous guest lecturers. I felt that I resonated with his values and research, so I reached out to him and started working with a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Varghese.” How has research impacted your undergraduate career? “Research has allowed me to grow as a critical thinker and problem

A Whole New World of Research

Monica Vemulapalli is a junior majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Experimental Biology Conference . When I found out that my first ever research conference was going to be in my hometown of Orlando, Florida, I was excited! I knew that having an unfamiliar event happen at a very familiar place would make me less anxious. However, the conference turned out to be less stressful and more interesting than I ever thought. I attended Experimental Biology (EB) and presented my very first research poster , a memory that I will definitely cherish forever.

Why Research Wednesday: Katelyn King

Katelyn King is a senior at Emory’s College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Biology and minoring in Global Health, Culture & Society. Her research area is on c ancer biology, and she investigates the effects of knocking out anti-apoptotic genes on drug efficacy in multiple myeloma. Her collegiate research journey started the summer after her first year. She was accepted into the NIH-NIDDK Short-Term Research Experience for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) program and was tasked with finding a mentor. She reached out to Oxford Professor Dr. Taliaferro-Smith because SHE was interested in her triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) research. After a brief informational interview, Dr. Taliaferro-Smith invited Katelyn to join her lab! During the 10-week program, SHE studied the effects of genetic modifications in TNBC. She offered to continue her position on the project throughout the academic year as an Oxford Research Scholar. She has since had the opportunity to conduct rese

Researchers of Emory

Search This Blog