Neuroscience symposium links students, scientists and innovation

On a bright Halloween day, researchers from East Carolina University and institutions across the state gathered for the 27th annual ECU Neuroscience Symposium to show off their work to fight against pernicious, and sometimes scary, neurological conditions that continue to elude scientific explanation.

An ECU student speaks about his research during the 27th annual neuroscience symposium.

Dr. Tuan Tran, associate professor of psychology and director of undergraduate research in ECU’s Office of Research, Economic Development and Engagement, organized the symposium, which drew dozens of graduate and undergraduate students from ECU and other UNC System institutions. The event brought together people interested in research involving the nervous system, the brain and spinal cord.

“We have graduate and undergraduate students doing basic bench science, medical students working on clinical and health-related applications of neurological research,” Tran said. “This is a great opportunity to share their work.”

Student researchers presented a dizzying array of research: inflammation in brain tissue, multiple sclerosis, central nervous system functioning in animal models, how language use works in the brain and how cannabis could be used to help with language processing after a traumatic brain injury.

An ongoing theme of the symposium has been neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, but presenters also included those delving into the neurobiology of learning and memory. Having a broad range of research has been a significant benefit for ongoing discovery – and the patients who may one day benefit from the work.

“Here we’re not in a silo with homogenous groupthink. Instead, we’re able to explore other possibilities and collaborations. Our faculty and students can engage with people from outside the university, which can lead to grant funding possibilities and publications,” Tran said.

An added benefit for attendees was having vendors and sponsors on-hand to meet with researchers, to demonstrate the latest technologies and laboratory gadgets that can help with advancing work in labs across ECU’s campuses.

Fostering Future Research

Hannah Lewis of Whiteville, who is majoring in biology and chemistry, presented her research on the N-glycosylation pathways of zebrafish and what happens when the mGAP1 gene is knocked out. In other words, she is exploring how carbohydrates attach to proteins, and what that means for how cells communicate with one another.

Hannah Lewis, an undergraduate biology and chemistry major from Whiteville, participated in the 27th annual neuroscience symposium.

In humans, the disorders she is studying are rare, but cause neurological and muscular deficiencies that are reflected in the zebrafish. By removing variants of the mGAP1 gene in the fish, she is able to see decreased motor function in some animals, and anxiety in others, which might afford and understating of how to approach treatment in people.

Having an opportunity to share the work that she and the other members of her team in Dr. Ruth Schwalbe’s lab have been working on was important as an undergrad with a medical school trajectory.

“I work so hard, so I love coming to share my work. It’s awesome to see all the other people and what they are doing,” Lewis said.

Jonathan Carver, a second-year doctoral student in Dr. Alessandro DiDonna’s lab in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Brody School of Medicine, is researching neuroinflammatory diseases like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s. In trying to understand how the disease process works, Carver said hope remains for treatments and potentially even cures.

The symposium is a way for Carver to share his work, but also importantly, he’s learning about the results of other researchers’ work. Keynote speaker Dr. Andrew West from Duke University discussed his exploration of synuclein aggregation in the LRRK2 gene and its impact on Parkinson’s, which Carver said might help his research.

“There’s just so much science out there to actually hear from people,” Carver said. “Neurological disorders are devastating for patients, have a large effect on their family and often makes them change how they live. There’s a great urgency in trying to solve these problems.”

Selma Okyere-Badoo, a second-year medical student from Cary, said that research is integral to her future career in family or internal medicine. The work she presented at the symposium tackles the challenge of helping patients with long-term pain.

Selma Okyer-Badoo of Cary is a second-year medical student at the ECU Brody School of Medicine.

Okyere-Badoo and her research partners at Brody are employing artificial intelligence to learn how patients are complying with chronic pain treatment. Can natural language computer processing match human assessments of interviews with patients about their journeys through the health care system? So far, early results are promising.

“We found that the natural language processing model was actually very accurate and feasible in synthesizing and then evaluating treatment adherence in our chronic pain participants by 93%,” Okyeree-Badoo said. “Human review is the gold standard, but we are really excited that it had accurate predictability. We also want to see if the model can be used to figure out pain perception in the aging and Spanish-speaking populations, because there a gap in research regarding non-English transcripts and natural language processing.”

Dr. Karen Litwa, an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at Brody, believes the level of science being presented at the symposium has increased over the years. Part of that success has come by way of the guidance and mentorship that students and faculty get from presenting their work.

“We’re really fortunate to have several undergraduates in our lab participating in research and presenting posters today. Critical feedback helps them understand their science and ways they might get more involved in research,” Litwa said.

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