Summer Interns
Salma Abdulrahman, Metropolitan State University. Mentor Oscar Miranda-Dominquez, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics. Also sponsored by the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction.
Salma Abdulrahman is a student at Metropolitan State University. She is pursuing a major in Biology. After she graduates, she plans to apply to medical schools or Ph.D. research programs. She hopes to learn and expand her knowledge during this internship. She is most excited about how her virtual experience would be in the summer. As well as the new experiences she will gain by this opportunity.
She will learn about non-invasive neuromodulation, such as TMS, and how it is utilized experimentally to treat several mental health conditions. Clinical use is limited because of the variability of the effectiveness. A reason for its high variability in effectiveness is because application often ignores individualized functional neuroanatomy. She will learn about functional precision mapping and how it can potentially fill this gap by identifying with clinical precision individualized brain networks.
Grace Bacon, Carleton College. Mentor Christine Conelea, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Grace Bacon is a rising junior at Carleton College. She is pursuing a major in psychology and a minor in neuroscience. Her goals are to go to graduate school to become a clinician and is also considering medical school. She is most excited to be able to interact with the community that her research is for.
The Converging Approaches to Neurodevelopment (CAN Lab) has several ongoing studies focused on neurodevelopmental disorders, with an emphasis on youth with Tourette Syndrome/tic disorders, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, and anxiety. Methods that Grace will gain exposure to include: neuroimaging, cognitive tasks, cognitive training, clinical assessment, video-based behavioral coding, neuromodulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation), EEG, and clinical trials.
Marta Bacon, Carleton College. Mentor Jayanthi Sasisekaran, Ph.D., Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences. Also sponsored by the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction.
Marta Bacon is a rising junior at Carleton College. She is pursuing a major in psychology. She is interested in neuropsychology and hopes to become a neuropsychologist in the future. She hopes to work with patients and conduct research work in mental health disorders as well as Alzheimer’s Disease. She is most excited to get a chance to research work involving speech fluency this summer as well as being in Minneapolis for this training experience.
Research work at the Speech Fluency lab has recently extended to involve the study of neural processes supporting fluency speech production. Marta will be working on various projects that study the temporal dynamics of language planning and speech production.
Esperanza Corral, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Mentor Geoffrey Ghose, Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience.
Esperanza Corral is a rising junior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is pursuing a major in Computer Engineering. Her interests lie in the realm of brain computer interfaces (BCIs). She aspires to deepen her understanding of this field through advanced studies in graduate school. This summer, she is particularly excited about the opportunity to delve into the forefront of neuroscience research, expanding her knowledge and actively participating in cutting-edge advancements.
Dr. Ghose's lab is interested in why we make mistakes. Broadly speaking, we attribute mistakes to a failure to process information correctly, but is that because the information the brain received was poor or that there was noise in the brain that interfered? We have several projects in the lab designed to answer this question using optical imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and brain stimulation of the brains of animals while they are engaged in challenging situations in which mistakes are common. Esperanza will assist in data collection, train animals in these challenging tasks, as well as analyze brain and behavioral data.
Adam Elmi, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Mentor Luke Johnson, Ph.D., Department of Neurology.
Adam Elmi is a rising senior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He is pursuing a major in Biology, Society and Environment. He is passionate about the intersection between healthcare disparities and underserved communities which is why I am pursuing medical school in hopes of providing the care and support to the marginalized communities of the metro area. He is most excited about engaging in research with a disciplinary team of experts who can support him in furthering his knowledge on research methodology and experience working with experts in the field of brain conditions.
The Neuromodulation Research Center (NMRC) specializes in research and the treatment of movement disorders, especially Parkinson’s disease (PD) in a preclinical research census. They use a novel, device based approach, which brings together experts from the fields of neuroscience, engineering, radiology, and neurosurgery in an interdisciplinary team dedicated to bringing next generation therapies from bench to bedside. Adam with the NMRC will have first-hand experience collecting neuro and electrophysiological data from behaving, implanted NHP. He will be able to process this data for synthesis and analysis by senior lab staff. The NMRC's internship program is laid out to give newcomers a holistic experience of research: from project design to publication.
Insia Kizibash, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Mentor Manda Keller-Ross, Ph.D., Department of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Insia Kizibash is a rising premed student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is pursuing a major in Chemistry and Human Physiology and a minor in Art. She is most excited about learning to do more clinical research which is not something she has experienced before.
The project she will be assisting with is to determine the influence of epidural spinal cord stimulation on autonomic function in cervical spinal cord injury patients. This study is to determine if epidural spinal cord stimulation improves autonomic function in spinal cord injury patients. She will be involved with optimizing stimulation parameters for each participant and test autonomic reflexes (head up tilt test) while using gold standard measurements to quantify blood pressure, heart rate, and sympathetic function.
Elham Osman, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Mentor Ka Ip, Ph.D., Institute of Child Development. Also sponsored by the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction.
Elham Osman is a rising junior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is pursuing a bachelors of science in Cellular and Organismal Physiology and a minor in Computational Biology. She is expected to graduate in 2025. She hopes to pursue a career in clinical research and to contribute in diversifying the field by ensuring that minorities are represented in research. She is most excited to gain experience working in a lab setting and collaborating with others while developing projects.
D.A.N.C.E (Development, Affective Neuroscience, Culture & Environment) lab led by Dr. Ka I Ip at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. His lab focuses on the development of emotion regulation in typical and at-risk populations, examining the ways that cultural contexts shape emotion regulation, and how early adversity and social determinants (e.g., discrimination and neighborhood inequalities) “get under the skin” to confer risk and resilience for developmental psychopathology and health disparities. Their goal is to use this knowledge to inform social policy that aims to reduce racial-ethnic inequalities and advance health equity, and to optimize timing of interventions.
Adam Weiner, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Mentor Esther Krook-Magnuson, Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience.
Adam Weiner is a rising student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities who is interested in neuroscience, accelerated learning, and sports. He wants to use neuroscience along with learning methods to help make learning easier. He is excited to learn from experts in the field and learn about the brain and how it functions.
The Krook-Magnuson lab examines brain circuits using a range of techniques. Adam will likely be engaged in running mouse behavioral tasks and performing analysis of recordings using DeepLabCut technologies.
Semele Zewde, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Mentor Arif Hamid, Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience. Also sponsored by the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction.
Semele Zewde is a rising senior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is studying Biomedical Engineering. After she completes her undergraduate degree, she plans to attend graduate school or a medical school. She is most excited for this opportunity to continue her research work from last summer and is looking forward to making new connections with other students.
She will be working on research that will focus on assessment of behavioral and neural underpinnings of maximizing reward rate.
