Sarah Myers

What led you to research in anatomy and cell biology?

“My research is not necessarily directly anatomy and cell biology (ACB) related. The research that I do could be done in various departments such as ACB, physiology and pharmacology, neuroscience, psychology, etc. The journey that got me here specifically started in my undergraduate degree at Western in physiology. I was volunteering for a lab in ACB that also investigates neurological disorders and their behavioral and molecular underpinnings. During this experience, I knew that I really enjoyed the research and wanted to continue it. After getting accepted into the MD/PhD program at Western, I knew I wanted to remain in a similar lab. This led me Shawn and Brian’s research program. On top of that, with having to do an accelerated three-year PhD, I didn’t want to leave the close-knit group of ACB. It's not just specifically the anatomy and cell biologydepartment, it's more of a combination of my experiences combined with a lot of advice from mentors.”

“Mentorship is the biggest one. The secondmajor influencein starting this program would have been experiences in coursework. During an undergraduate degree, it is easy to get lost in the stress of deadlines, exams, and GPA, but it’s equally important to discover what you’re passionate about. Everything that you’re learning right now, is it just to get a good grade or is it because you like learning about it? What fuels you? At the end of the day, you're not going to like where you're going if you don't actually know if you like doing it. Personally, I was able to take a variety of systems-level courses in my physiology degree and was able to narrow my excitement down to the field of neuroscience. Overall, I would really encourage introspection self-awareness in this sense. I know there's often not a lot of time to sit down and think, but it does help in making long-term decisions. ”

What have been of the major influences on your career so far?

What is your favourite thing about research?

“It's really the fact that I get to work with my friends. I go in every day, and we can get to work on a lot of different aspects of research projectstogether.Even during our lunch breaks, you can often find us spit-balling new project ideas or discussing new research articles. Perhaps the broad umbrella term for my favourite thing would be collaboration. You get to work with so many like-minded individuals that are passionate about the exact same thing you are. On a bigger scale, PIs do the same thing. In a very basic sense, they go, ‘Hey, your research program does this technique which that could really help us in discovering the answer to this scientific question. Do you want to collaborate?’ This happens across research programs within and between institutions. My second favourite thing 44about research would be the day to day, continuous learning. What I find these days is that we just don't know what the truth is. Every time a paper comes out, the ‘truth’

Graduate Student MD/PhD Candidate

Contact Info

smyers33@uwo.ca

What are you currently working on?

r“I’m currently a third year PhD student; I started as a master’s student and then transferred over to a PhD in my 2nd year. My work right now is focusing on aging and Alzheimer's disease. Broadly, I’m looking at the relationship between cognitive impairment and microglia activation in the white matter of the brain. To assess this relationship, we have a longitudinal animal study in progress. We are assessing cognition at 3, 9, or 15 months of age in three different strains of rats: a wildtype control and two different transgenic rat models of Alzheimer’s disease (TgAPP and TgAPP/PS1). The TgAPP rat overexpresses a human form of APP and acts as a prodromal model of Alzheimer's disease without amyloid plaque deposition. The second rat model, TgAPP/PS1, overexpresses human forms of both APP and PS1 and develops age-dependent amyloid plaques, reflecting a more advanced stage in disease progression. We are testing their cognition to assess deficits in executive function, learning, and memory. Executive function is an umbrella term for mental processes required for goal directed behaviours such as working memory and cognitive flexibility. After testing for cognitive deficits, we're assessing pathological changes, including microglia activation, using immunohistochemistry.”

“Short-term, I’m focused on my thesis and starting to get pieces written/published. Long-term, I think my mind changes frequently on what I want to do. I have really enjoyed my PhD thus far and would like to do a post-doc after I finish. From there, we’ll see if my interests lead me more towards industry or academia. What about research-wise? I started working on this longitudinal aging/Alzheimer’s study about a year ago, and still have about another year until I’ll be done with all the cognitive testing. It is going to be very exciting to see the whole dataset and how that fits in with the immunohistochemistry results. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that all comes together, because right now I only have bits and pieces of the story.”

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how that all comes together, because right now I only have bits and pieces of the story. ”

What are some of your future goals?

What led you to neuroscience research?

“When I started my undergraduate degree, I had no idea what I wanted to do post-grad or even what I wanted to major in. I ended up taking a neuroscience course and loved it and I went on to join a research lab working with Alzheimer's disease rat models. I really enjoyed it and knew I wanted to continue with research.I took a year off between undergraduateand graduate school to figure out where I wanted to be. I did a lot of research into what labs I might be interested in, and Dr. Whitehead's lab really stuck out to me. Do you see yourself sticking with neuroscience and Alzheimer’s Disease? At this point I really don’t know; I’m staying open to lots of different possibilities for where I might end up post-PhD. However, I do really enjoy what I’m working on and could see myself sticking in this area or somewhere closely related. ”

“I think the main thing for me was I kept trying different things and then choosing to continue with what I enjoyed. For example, I did my undergraduate degree in the U.S., and I did not have to pick a major immediately. I took a bunch of completely different courses and neuroscience stuck out to me, and I ended up majoring in it. Contrary to most sciences students, I knew quickly that I did not want to go to med school. Instead, I tried research, really enjoyed it, and have stayed with it since. It was about not being so stuck in the idea that I’m a science student and I need to follow a certain path or pursue specific things. Itwasalsohelpful for me to talk to people that were involved in different areas of science and expose myself to different environments. That helped me figure out what interested me the most.”

“I think the main thing for me was I kept trying different things and then choosing to continue with what I enjoyed.”

What were important steps you took to end up here?

What is your favourite thing about research?

“I don't think that this is true of every research environment, but I really love the collaborative nature of the anatomy and cell biology department. Having the opportunity to talk about different ideas, get help in areas you aren’t familiar with, and work in a team-focused environment is a special aspect of this department/our lab. Beyond this, I have always loved learning and in a research environment you’re going to be learning something new every day. I don’t just mean from project results, but also from reading papers and interacting with other students and PIs.”