DOCUMENT

8 Headlines An area of support that is offered throughout our grant rounds is the chance for students to be funded throughout the summer on scholarship to gain valuable research experience. These students can research a neurological topic that they're passionate about and gain insight and guidance from renowned mentors. Because of the generous support of N & C Anderson and Mr William Robins, three students were able to dive into their passion for neurological research. We are proud to introduce you to these students and the research they have undertaken. Catriona Miller University of Auckland Thank you to the generous donations from N & C Anderson funding this summer studentship . Summer studentships: discovering their passion for research Catriona Miller was born in Northern England and immigrated to New Zealand with her mum, dad and younger sister when she was six. Like many of the researchers we fund, Catriona gravitated towards maths and sciences in high school as she liked the sense of discovery and excitement when she solved a difficult problem. She received a ‘University of Auckland Top Achiever’ scholarship and began studying Biomedical Science in 2018, but soon realised she missed studying maths and physics. She then discovered Biomedical Engineering, which allowed her to meld her passions for maths, physics and physiology into one. And in case that wasn’t keeping her busy enough, Catriona is also the president of STEM for Global Health NZ, an organisation involved in growing students’ awareness of the uses of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to improve global health. Catriona’s research project involved a mixture of computational and laboratory techniques to develop a model of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), a part of the brain which basically prolongs signals coming from the region controlling your motor functions (motor cortex). This activity typically occurs and can be amplified in models of Parkinson’s disease. Under the supervision of Dr Peter Freestone at the University of Auckland, Catriona specifically looked at mapping these connectors to the motor cortex by using light stimulation and a new technique called clear, unobstructed brain imaging cocktails and computational analysis (CUBIC). CUBIC allows brain tissue to appear transparent, permitting 3D images to be made of potential connectors. When asked why she is interested in neurological research, Catriona shared a story with us, “like many New Zealand families, I’ve personally seen the effects of neurological conditions with my Gran having Alzheimer's disease, my Granddad having Parkinson’s disease and having an essential tremor myself. I think it was this personal connection that made me so interested in finding out how things can go wrong in the brain and what we can do to try prevent this.”