As an I-CUREUS student in Dr. Alfonso Abizaid’s lab I had the opportunity to work with a Masters student on a follow-up study to complement a previous study she had worked on. Our project looked at the role of the hunger hormone ghrelin in mediating anxious behaviours in mice using three behavioural paradigms: a social interaction test, eating in a strange environment and an open-field test. This allowed us to see how blocking ghrelin activity with a drug might influence social anxiety in particular.
My role included recording daily weight, food & water intake measurements for a group of mice, administering injections, running the three behavioural tests mentioned above, video scoring and some basic data analysis.
It is great to experience research first-hand which is very different from classes. In addition, seeing the scientific process in action is very interesting! I would highly recommend an I-CUREUS project for any student interested in learning more about research, and what it’s like to work in a lab setting, especially for students interested in pursuing grad school or work on 4th year thesis.
Anne Wilson