Makenzie Norris
First-year, Neuroscience Program; McCall Lab
As a budding neuroscientist, she aims to develop her skills to continue to push science to new heights both in and out of the lab. She is interested in dissecting how stress circuits and endogenous opioid systems interact in the brain to modulate the perception of pain. Specifically, as one of the brain’s primary norepinephrine sources she hopes to study the potential involvement of the locus coeruleus as a mediator in this intersection. With this in mind, it is her long term goal in science to contribute information to aid in the development of new pain medications with reduced addiction liability to combat the current opioid epidemic. Outside of lab, her long term goals are to make a positive impact on increasing diversity in STEM while also implementing better science communication strategies to increase medical/scientific awareness in the public, importantly in places where science education is lacking. She chose Dr. McCall’s lab because he actively supports both parts of her goals as a graduate student, those of course being scientific development as well as scientific outreach.
McKenna Wilhelm
First-year, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology Program; Burris Lab
In March, McKenna joined the lab of Dr. Thomas Burris who studies the pharmacology and chemical biology of nuclear receptors. Currently, she is diving into two distinct projects to decide what would be best fitting for her thesis project. She aspires to work on drug discovery and understanding the pharmacology of ligand interactions with nuclear receptors for therapeutics. Choosing Dr. Burris’ lab was a natural fit for her because of her long term goals of working in the pharmaceutical industry. The spunky lab environment and diversity of projects in the lab was another determining factor in her decision. She looks forward to working with everyone in the Center for Clinical Pharmacology and is enthusiastic about the innovative research that is being done here.
Marwa Mikati
First-year, Neuroscience Program; Al-Hasani Lab
Marwa has also just recently joined the lab of Dr. Ream Al-Hasani. She is interested in unraveling the relationship between opioid withdrawal and the inflammatory response. She also seeks to understand the role of the immune system during withdrawal. Opioid research is very timely due to the current crisis, and understanding the endogenous circuitry is essential for the synthesis of safer opioids. She was drawn to the Al-Hasani lab due to the topics, cutting-edge techniques, close partnership with the McCall lab, and Dr. Al-Hasani’s leadership.