Rebecca Parnell gains neuroscience research experience at SAU

2017 Apr 12

Rebecca Parnell, of Texarkana, 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.

Parnell is a senior Pre-Health Biological Science major. She is partnered with Brishna Hedstrom, of Fouke, in culturing brain cells from animals with different mutant genes.

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.