Biomedical RaMP

I spent time in the Biomedical RaMP Program exploring pain management and focusing on ischemic myalgia, a form of muscle pain. Ischemic myalgia occurs due to a reperfusion injury (I/R) when the muscle is deprived of oxygen for a significant amount of time. It is a heavily prevalent disease, yet there are no treatments for curing it.

However, previous studies have noted that by repeating an I/R injury, the primary immune pathways are altered, with a significant chemokine ligand driving this process. Thus, we wanted to test whether depleting the presence of this ligand would lead to a lower amount of T-cell (a type of immune cell) count within the I/R injured muscle cells. 

This experience helped me gain many wet lab techniques and skills I can continue to implement in my research, such as animal dissection, cryostat, immunohistochemistry, and confocal studies.

I was able to grow as a GCS scholar because of this program. Being in the research environment allowed me to learn about the day-to-day life as a researcher, and helped me discover a passion for wet-lab research. I have conducted research in the past, but it did not consist of coming into the lab and performing experiments and techniques, so I was very appreciative to be exposed to a different type of research. I'm truly grateful to my mentor, Gyanesh Tripathi, the Jankowski Lab, and the RaMP program for providing me with this opportunity.