Brishna Hedstrom gains neuroscience research experience at SAU

2017 Apr 12

Brishna Hedstrom, of Fouke, is part of a group of Southern Arkansas University students formed to pursue neuroscience and genetic research projects in the College of Science and Engineering during the spring 2017 semester.

Hedstrom is a senior Pre-Health Chemistry major. Her project involves a NASA grant of $1,500.00 for the semester to study the effects of zero gravity on the development of the nervous system. She is partnered up with Rebecca Parnell, of Texarkana, in culturing brain cells from animals with different mutant genes. Additionally, she is also working with SAU's NRRC Director Dr. Gija Geme in measuring the amount of lead in soil at a local shooting range.

"During my time at SAU I have been blessed to work in several of the chemistry labs," Hedstrom says. "I love it so of course I couldn't say no to more research. Oh, and its NASA!"

Under the guidance of of Dr. Mikolaj Sulkowski, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Gisela Sulkowski, pre-health advisor, the research group meets weekly to conduct presentations on student progress and to facilitate communication among the group.

Throughout the rest of the week, however, students maintain a self-driven schedule. Dr. Mikolaj Sulkowski says this style of work helps prepare students for research opportunities in their future career.

He was responsible for opening the SAU Laboratory of Neurogenetics in 2016 and was granted an SAU faculty research grant to study gene regulation in the brain. He has experience writing grants to NASA and the Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Arkansas INBRE) program aimed at student research opportunities. Additionally, he has collaborated with National Institute of Health (NIH) researchers in publishing a manuscript to "PLOS Genetics," a peer-reviewed open-access journal.