By Brandon T. Jackson, UROC Research Story 2025
I went to a college prep school; the expectation was that I would go to a university for a STEM field right after graduation. However, I had a general disdain for school and could not see myself proceeding down that path. It was then that I decided that I should learn a trade and welding was what I chose due to the limitless possibilities of what I could create with my own hands.
Learning to weld rejuvenated my joy and interest for school. I felt motivated to become better at what I was doing and to understand every aspect of the trade; I was even at school when I didn’t need to be. I finished my Associate’s degree and went on to become a pipefitter welder where I proceeded to get two journeyman licenses and many welding certifications.
Although I no longer had to worry about learning anything other than my trade, I continued to question how the world worked. I wanted a more in depth understanding of the science behind what we were doing but never got a satisfactory answer. After some time, I decided that I wanted to return to school in order to feed my inquisitiveness.
Returning to school seemed like a daunting experience; I was worried that any future academic efforts would be in vain. I thought back to all of the certifications that I earned. I had very little natural talent for welding so every certification was achieved with the skill that I tirelessly worked for. After working 60+ hour weeks, I would go to the weld shop to practice. I even practiced on my lunch breaks and learned to weld ambidextrously. I realized that there was no reason that I couldn’t put forth the same effort towards school.
I had a friend, who had just recently finished his PhD, that I confided in about my insecurities. He gave me a piece of advice that I’ve carried with me since, have often reflected on to get me through tough times, and encouraged me when I wanted to give up, “You have to want it!”
I found great joy in returning to school and learning; everything was so interesting and I couldn’t get enough! I got straight A’s, which had never happened to me before. I started to think about graduate school, which I never contemplated up until that point. However, I didn’t know what I wanted to study.
After finishing my second semester, I had an intense panic attack that lasted for hours.
For the next three months, subsequent panic attacks would happen more easily and with the same severity. I had always been interested in the brain to an extent; it’s our memories, our feelings, who we are as a person. Due to my ongoing battle with panic attacks, I realized that I wanted to go into neuroscience so that I may study and more fully understand the brain.
One day, my biology professor mentioned the Ronald E. McNair Scholars and Research Program, which would aid in pursuing research and applying to graduate school. I knew at that moment that this was just the program that I was looking for! In the summer of 2024, I was awarded the fellowship.
I was fortunate enough to join Dr. Sam McKenzie’s lab, who studies the formation of memories, changes of brain activity with learning, and seizure forecasting. I met McNair alumni and PhD candidate, Gaokhia Yang, who is working on studying plasticity within the hippocampus. Both Dr. McKenzie and Gaokhia were incredibly supportive and influential in the experiment, all the way back from our initial meeting before I even joined the lab. Between those aspects and the opportunity to work with a McNair alumni, I knew that I wanted to be a part of the lab and work with both of them.
Memory is believed to be encoded by how neurons fire together, known as synaptic transmission. Within the hippocampus, the synaptic strength is plastic and can change, however, the rules of how connectivity is affected is unknown. For this project, we tested the plasticity rules governing the excitatory synaptic strength onto local inhibitory cells and plasticity assembly dynamics in freely behaving mice within the hippocampus. By injecting proteins, which bind to the excitatory and inhibitory neurons, we were able to control the firing rate of each cell population with different wavelengths of light. Red and blue wavelength light was pulsed, either paired together or blue light only (unpaired), to induce plasticity within the neurons.
We discovered that pairing blue and red light simultaneously increased the response of excitatory neurons, while blue light alone did not. We also found that our light stimulation caused the firing of paired and unpaired neurons to occur at different times. These findings show the potential plasticity at the excitatory to inhibitory synapse in controlling neural excitability and assembly membership. The results will be shared via scientific research articles and at conferences such as the Society for Neuroscience. While this is still an ongoing experiment, future directions include performing the same experiment but in a novel context rather than only a familiar context. Additionally, we would also like to research protein synthesis as a result of the changes in plasticity.
This research is important because plasticity is necessary for learning and memory. In the case of a traumatic brain injury or pathologies such as Alzheimer’s Disease, both learning and memory retention are impaired. By understanding neural excitability and assembly membership, we can open novel or poorly understood avenues for treatment.
From this project, I learned just how much depth, knowledge, and understanding has to go into an experiment of this caliber. There were so many aspects that I had to understand which necessitated additional background research. I feel incredibly humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to be working with people who are so knowledgeable, kind, and helpful. I feel inspired to work towards a PhD so that I may one day follow in their footsteps and be as inspirational to someone else as they were for me.
The first piece of advice that I would give to other undergraduate researchers who are just starting their academic journey is to go into it with an open mind. There are amazing opportunities available to aspiring future researchers and the world has so many more amazing things that we have yet to discover. The best way to start is by reaching out to professors whose research interests you. The last and most important advice that I could give is “You have to want it!”