A Field of Research That’s Full of Mysteries
As a member of the Bass Connections project team Brain-immune Interactions in Neurodegenerative Disease, Kirsten Bonawitz collected neurons from normal and mild-cognitive impairment human brain samples, extracted RNA for the purpose of gene expression analysis and initiated the collection of neurons from mild and severe Alzheimer’s samples. A neuroscience major, Kirsten received a Bass Connections follow-on grant to build on her research with the mentorship of Ornit Chiba-Falek.
This team is comprised of three different labs that work collaboratively to study neurodegenerative diseases. To do that, we conduct experiments that ultimately seek to help us understand the basic pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease.
I chose to apply to this particular Bass Connections team because I really wanted to get involved in hands-on scientific research. Furthermore, the overall theme of neurodegenerative diseases really fascinated me because this is a field of research that is always changing and full of mysteries—and full of collaboration from so many different people and labs and specialties.
Even more importantly, I think I was really drawn by the emotional component that drives this kind of research, because in the end the main goal is to help people who suffer from devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
This project plays and will continue to play an important role in my academic and professional career. I plan to develop it into a senior thesis.
Learn More
- Read more about this project team.
- Explore Bass Connections in Brain & Society.
- Find out how to get involved in Bass Connections.
