What did you do this summer?

LSU Health New Orleans pipeline programs students’ answers may astound you!

August 4, 2023

High school, undergraduate and medical students from Louisiana to California presented their research findings after another successful summer for STEM pipeline programs at LSU Health New Orleans’ Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies. The competitive Summer Internship program, including the LSU Health-Brown Foundation High School Internship Program and Research Experiences for Undergraduates, as well as the Summer Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, give these young students hands-on research experience, education, mentorship, and a jump-start to health careers.

They learn techniques used in the health sciences laboratories, gain research study skills, and get one-on-one training from LSU Health New Orleans faculty in designing and conducting experiments. They also receive professional development and career preparation through weekly program seminars and training in presentation skills, including how to prepare a presentation for a scientific meeting.

The experiments they do help advance research to solve some of society’s most serious health issues.

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This year’s research projects included one investigating house dust mite allergens suggesting for the first time that a compound discovered in the Bazan lab in the Neuroscience Center of Excellence may serve as a therapeutic target for allergens in the future.

Another project showed that abnormal expansion of repeated DNA sequences in Huntington’s Disease is most prevalent in the cerebral cortex, suggesting it as a therapeutic target to either slow down the DNA expansions or halt them altogether.

Others looked at the effects of alcohol, how cancer spreads, potential new treatments for stroke, and how SARS-CoV-2 variants evade the immune system.

Through these programs, hundreds of students have been introduced to science careers and the opportunities available right here at home. After completion, many participants have presented their research at medical or scientific conferences, have had their research published in medical or scientific journals, have been accepted by medical and graduate schools, and gained employment in STEM fields.

The future of health and science is in good hands!