• What new ideas, challenges, or other issues have you encountered with regard to your project (this might include data collection, information that contradicts your assumptions or the assertions of others, materials that have enriched your understanding of the topic, or led you to change your project, etc.)? 

I had been contemplating which concentration of corticosterone to use, and I ultimately decided on 100 nM, as the literature on corticosterone in dorsal root ganglion neurons in vitro was at 100 nM. Since this type of experiment has not been done before, I examined corticosterone concentrations used in other contexts, still within the same neuronal type and culture conditions, including calcium influx, with synergistic effects in the presence of a glutamate receptor agonist and glutamatergic neurons. I was also considering which timepoints I should stimulate my cells with KCL and decided on 30 minutes, as the literature suggests that this is a window for gene expression, in general, and I found, in the literature, a similar experiment that subjected DRGs to 30 minutes with 5 mM of KCL, and another experiment that stimulated KCL with 100 nM of corticosterone. While performing RNA extraction, I ran into issues such as a sample not being fully homogenized or not receiving enough Buffer RDD. I  made sure to run a lot of samples in case of events such as those, and I was able to establish my cDNA libraries. One of the samples that I ran for my cDNA libraries had only 1 ng per microliter of DNA, and it ended up not working out fully when I ran the qPCR. Fortunately, I had planned for a buffer day when I set up my experiments, and I ran qPCR again on select samples.  

• How have these ideas or challenges shaped the bigger picture of your research? Has the scope or focus of your topic changed since you began this project? If so, how?

When I first proposed my project, I was leaning towards a more behavioral model, such as using Von Frey filaments and using chronic stress protocols such as forced restraint, tail suspension, and the forced swim test. In the early weeks of Laidlaw, I had been debating whether to explore a morphological or behavioral lens in the context of chronic stress. In the literature, I found an experiment detailing the effect of acute stress on neurite growth in dorsal root ganglion neurons, and I became intrigued by the effects of chronic stress on DRGs in vitro. In the fall of 2025, I conducted pilot behavioral assays on the mechanical ARM (Automated Reproducible Mechano-stimulator) using the Projected Analysis Withdrawal Speeds (PAWS) AI-driven analysis platform and studied paw withdrawal speeds in mice that had been habituated to stress. Thus, I was interested in exploring, at the morphological level, how the DRGs of mice behave in controlled in vitro environments, thereby eliminating confounding variables such as paw inflammation. While culturing the cells in vitro for 13 days (before stimulating with KCl on days 14 and 15), I imaged the plates using an electron microscope and noticed a fascinating branching pattern in the corticosterone and control groups. I'm very excited about the results.

• Now that you’ve engaged in Part II of the Leadership Retreat, reflect on a learning point that remains with you as a new way to understand leadership and to incorporate into your own engagement in the future.

Leadership is multidimensional, necessitating that we act forward, backward, and alongside one another. As I reflect on the case studies in the workshop, I realize that although each character has their own leadership style, there isn't one style that's necessarily better than the other. In fact, it's the amalgamation of all of these styles that would make for great leadership. In my future engagement, I hope to branch out and lead in other ways, whether in a supporting or managing role. 
P.S. I imaged my experiments with the confocal microscope today! I have four established conditions, and the data looks very interesting. I'm using GFP (green), RFP (red), and DAPI (blue) to analyze my IHC images (which are also the colors in the neuroscience infographic pictured in the header!).