Prasiddha is a Biological Sciences major, and a member of the Honors College, graduating in May 2018.

List any Scholars/Honors programs you are a part of: President’s and Dean’s list; John W. Jeffries Dean's List Award recipient; Member of PBK; CNMS Awards recepient

Title of your research project: Role of TRPM5-expressing microvillous cells in maintaining the morphology of olfactory epithelium when exposed to chemicals.

Describe your project: Exposing wild type and Skn-1a knockout mice lacking the transient receptor potential channel M5 expressing microvillous cellsto chemicals via inhalation for 1 week, and examining the morphology of the Main Olfactory Epithelium (MOE) by performing immunohistochemistry and quantitative analysis to determine the number of microvillous cells and Olfactory Sensory Neurons in the MOE after exposure.

Who is your mentor(s) for your project? Dr. Weihong Lin, Biology Department. When I went to interview to be a TA for her class, I requested her for a research position. A lot of my volunteering experiences include working alongside people with disabilities and so psychology and neuroscience are the subjects that interest me the most. Hence I chose this lab. Also, I want to be a surgeon and the profusions/ dissections in this lab are preparing me for that.

How did you become interested in this project? Previous experiments showed significant results in behavioral and structural changes between mice that lack and have microvillus cells, when exposed to chemicals for 2-weeks. So, I was curious if there would be any changes in the epithelium when mice are exposed to chemicals for one week, a shorter time period with less recovery time.

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? The hardest part about the research is the dissection of the noses of the mice. Dissections, especially of a very small part of the nose, requires great attention and focus and is time consuming. Dissection of each nose takes about 3 hours. The unexpected part of being a researcher is that experiments don’t always work well and data is always not in favor of the hypothesis formulated.

What has been the most rewarding part? The most rewarding part is that, along this process of success and failure I have learnt a lot about research and I am able to perform research techniques with skill. Also, this hands-on experience has helped me understand a lot more about the nervous system.

How will you disseminate your research? I will present my research poster at URCAD on April 25th in the UC Ballroom from 10-11:30am. You can read my full abstract here: https://urcad.umbc.edu/documents/

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research?  Definitely something to get your hands dirty with. It will open you up to a great new possibility of learning and understanding science in the real world.

What are your career goals? To become a surgeon.