5 minute read
Pirate Nation
HEADACHE HUNTER
It might start with an aura — a scintillating scotoma of zigzag lines, opaque circles, rings of colors. You might turn or blink, but it just gets worse. Then the pounding starts inside your head.
You’re having a migraine, and you reach for whatever remedy you’ve found most effective over the years.
Mandee Schaub ’22 knows the feeling all too well. “I’ve had 24/7 headaches since I was 12 years old,” she said. “Every day, all the time.”
Schaub graduated with a master’s in biomedical science and a concentration in neuroscience, and she plans to help people who suffer from debilitating headaches. She’s now a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Dallas, working in the lab of Greg Dussor — one of the nation’s few migraine research labs.
“I tell everyone I’m very calling-driven,” Schaub said. “Mine is to do migraine research. It’s a premier lab for migraine research in the United States, so it’s an amazing opportunity.”
Schaub is also the first migraine patient to work with Dussor.
“She’s probably one of the most motivated students we’ve had come work here, at least in our lab,” Dussor said.
Schaub, 24, grew up in Brunswick County and graduated from Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, studying pre-medicine. She then enrolled in graduate school at ECU, deciding research was more for her than becoming a doctor.
“I realized I could have a lot larger scale of helping people with headaches if I was helping develop therapeutics or helping find out what was causing the headaches rather than just treating patients,” she said.
At ECU, her mentor was Stefan Clemens, a professor of physiology at the Brody School of Medicine. She also worked closely with Kori Brewer, a professor of emergency medicine and collaborator with Clemens on pain-management research.
“She’s driven, and she’s really driven by her desire to understand what’s at the bottom of things,” Brewer said.
Schaub also worked in the ECU Office of Licensing and Commercialization and with Clemens and Brewer on two patents related to pain relief, including one where she is listed as a coinventor on the provisional patent application: “Methods and compositions for preventing and treating fibrosis and improving functional recovery after injury or with aging.”
As she seeks to understand what causes migraines and how she can translate that into therapeutics, Schaub has gotten some relief from a monoclonal antibody therapy the FDA approved in 2018.
“I was living at an eight (pain level) every day at that point,” she said. “I was mostly debilitated with headaches, and I was doing a lot of grinning and bearing it. But now I’m living with like a four or five on my pain scale. It’s been an interesting journey, but I think it’s prepared me for what I’m about to do.”
Once she completes her doctorate, she plans to come back east to work, study or teach.
“Rural North Carolina, that’s where my heart is, so my ultimate goal is to open a nonprofit migraine treatment center somewhere in rural North Carolina,” Schaub said. “But I can definitely see myself coming back to ECU.” – Doug Boyd
Mandee Schaub ’22 is studying migraines and their causes and potential treatments at the University of Texas at Dallas.
DISTINGUISHED FLYING
Even though the Navy awarded him one of the military’s highest honors, for Maj. Cory Jones ’06, surviving a midair collision and helping lead his crew to a safe emergency landing is reward enough.
“Honestly, being alive is all I needed and wanted,” said Jones, a Marine Corps KC-130J Super Hercules pilot at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
Jones received the Distinguished Flying Cross for safely landing his aircraft after it collided with another plane during refueling training Sept. 29, 2020, in California. He was also named the 2022 Military Times Marine of the Year.
A native of Cornelius, Jones came to ECU after attending community college.
He graduated thinking he would become a strength and conditioning coach. An admitted adrenaline junkie, he turned to a career as a Marine Corps pilot.
But in the seconds after the collision, as warning alarms sounded and two of the aircraft’s four engines failed, Jones maintained focus.
“It is one of those things where you just do what you’re trained to do,” Jones said. “I was in shock at first and thought the plane would not be controllable, but as soon as I realized the plane was flyable, (we) went to work to get the plane on the ground. … I can honestly say that I think each person on the crew was meant to be there that day, and everyone played a vital role.”
He belly-landed the plane in a California field, and he and the crew escaped. His reaction?
“Stunned. Absolutely in shock at what had just happened,” he said. “Myself and the other pilot (Capt. Michael Wolff, who also received the Distinguished Flying Cross) looked at each other in disbelief, and once out of the aircraft, we all shook hands and thanked each other for their work in getting the plane down. It was emotional, to say the least.”
Married to wife Lori and with two children, son Eli and daughter Maddie, Jones credits his crew and appreciates his purpose.
“I have often said that things happen for a reason, and while we don’t always understand why, there is a reason,” he said. “I believe that was the case for this event, and I still don’t know why I was put there, but I would like to ensure that whatever the reason, I don’t waste it. I have always been a religious person, and while a lot of people always ask about how my training or my skill made this successful, I always say it wasn’t me. Reading the mishap report and understanding the situation, there are circumstances that can’t be explained by skill or luck, and I thank God each day that I walked away from this.” – Ken Buday
Marine Corps Maj. Cory Jones ’06 received the Distinguished Flying Cross for safely landing a KC-130J tanker after it collided with an F-35 fighter aircraft in 2020 over southern California.
