Maia BrownJunior Microbiology and pre-med student What did I do over the summer? Well, that’s a loaded question. Like many Americans, I was highly anticipating the Summer Olympics. As a big sports fan, I got my team-spirit on and cheered on team USA and as a native Marylander I was cheering on Ledecky big time. Naomi Osaka, who was one of the recent Met Gala Hosts and one of my favorite tennis stars, started the Summer off with an important action on the behalf of her mental health. She put herself first and withdrew from the French Open. It’s important for us all to take those steps back, set boundaries, and take care of our mental health, because when our mental health is not okay, we cannot perform the best we can. The next notable thing to me this summer was on June 19th, or Juneteenth known to many, which was officially made a federal holiday this summer. While I believe that was long past due, now all of America can finally and officially recognize the day that slavery ended in this country. It’s important to reflect on the importance and meaning of June 19th, to see how far our country has come, but to also reflect on the issues African Americans face today. We saw billionaires go to space, the G.O.A.T. of gymnastics withdraw from the team all around in the Olympics, to the various COVID variants arise, this summer was packed full of news, good and bad. Every day we can learn from what is going on not only in our country, but also in the world around us. My summer was occupied with Pitt’s Summer Pre-med Academic Enrichment Program (SPAEP for short). This 7-week program was a virtual, but packed and exciting experience. I took two classes that occupied most of my day. We learned physiology of the body and how it applied to different diseases. We also read and presented on multiple research articles ranging from diabetes to mind-and-body medicine. The diversity of material we learned made me enjoy this intensive experience. The worst thing about the program was doing an at-home glucose test. Drinking a large glass full of simple syrup was not fun, and I can’t imagine how it must be for all the people who must do glucose tests in other settings. However, it was interesting to see how our blood sugar content changed over the course of the day. We then compared it to how other foods affected our blood sugar. I decided to see what a serving of cheese would do because I absolutely love cheese. In the end, and looking back on it, it was a cool and meaningful experience, while also being funny. We also did a research project over the course of this program. So, what did I do mine on? If you’ve taken a microbiology or biochemistry class, maybe you’ve heard of prion diseases. I decided to do my research on Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD for short). This disease is caused by an infectious protein that causes other proteins to misfold, primarily in nervous tissue. This causes a sponge-like pathology in brain tissue and is unfortunately fatal. I decided to look at CJD in populations 65 and older, as well as if they have had neurosurgery. There is a certain type of CJD called iatrogenic CJD that is passed from neurosurgical instruments. I wanted to know if neurosurgery put this population at a higher risk for contracting the disease. During this research, I got familiar with the pubmed.gov database. As Pitt students, we have access to this great resource for looking up millions of research papers. I got to sort through multiple papers to select a handful that would help me do a literature review of my research question. In the end, I did not find a relationship, but going through the process of a literature review and finding and putting research paper’s together for my own questions was incredible. I got to present in front of my peers, as well as our educators of the program (you get lots of practice with presenting things). My summer was filled with my own meaningful experiences, while also taking in the world around me. I hope your summer was great!
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January 2022
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