Sofia Bacolas ’28: Undergraduate Research Assistant

This summer, I have had the opportunity to work as a research assistant in a neurology lab for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a global research center within the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The Miami Project conducts basic, translational and clinical research in traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve injury, and neurological diseases and disorders.

The lab I interned investigates neuronal regeneration following spinal cord injury. Specifically, my project focused on the recovery of the arterial system in the spinal cord of the injured mouse. I was responsible for preparing nervous tissue samples using immunolabeling and clearing procedures, imaging the tissue vasculature using a light-sheet microscope, and training a machine learning algorithm in the Imaris software to construct 3D visualizations for analysis.

As a neuroscience major at Bowdoin, this summer was truly an enriching experience that helped me develop my career aspirations. Through my fascination with the lab work and the skills I developed in microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and image analysis software, I have found that I would love to pursue a PhD in neuroscience post-grad. My favorite part of working at The Miami Project was getting to collaborate with other researchers and graduate students in my lab. I loved being able to talk to them about their knowledge in the field and ask them about their pathways through their career. Additionally, getting to know them as people and laugh alongside them made the work so much more enjoyable.

Internship funded by: Peter Buck Internship Fund