Symposium attendee shares research experience

At the Undergraduate Research Symposium, The News-Letter had the opportunity to interview Sam Allen, a junior Neuroscience major, who works in the Lieber Institute for Brain Development.

Interview with Sam Allen:

The News-Letter: How did you get involved in research?

Sam Allen: It’s actually kind of a funny story. My first time getting involved in research I actually went to a talk at themedical campus, the Brain Night Talks, and I cornered the speaker and talked to him... I worked [at the speaker’s lab] and then I went to a different lab after I took a tour of that lab and cornered their CEO. So I’ve kind of been really up-front about asking people.

N-L: How long have you been involved in research?

SA: I’ve been researching in the same lab since January of freshman year or so. I’m coming up on two years.

N-L: How did you pick your research topic?

SA: I’ve always been really interested in the molecular underpinnings of cognitive disorders. So not cognition itself, but the molecular stuff going on underneath. The lab I work in now looks at schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and bipolar disorder — those are all things that really interested me: how the mechanistic pathways go wrong and lead to change in the cognition. When I found out that lab was doing that and they work with human brain tissue, it was a match.

N-L: What is the most surprising thing you’ve found out personally or scientifically through research?

SA: For me, how they portray research in popular culture... like you find something new every day. But the project I’m working on now, I’ve been looking for the same thing for the past four months, just redesigning ways to find it... But I’ve had experiences when I did find something and you’re kind of like, “It’s amazing... I’m the first one to see this.” Even after three months, it’s validating.

N-L: Do you have any advice for anyone who’s intimidated by research?

SA: I think that anyone, even if they don’t know if they want to do research, should just throw themselves into it. I didn’t think I wanted to do it until I tried it right before I came to college. I just wanted to be M.D. Now I’ve moved on to wanting to do M.D.-Ph.D. I didn’t even think I’d like research until I just went to it... It doesn’t even matter how much experience you have. I had zero experience. It kind of calls to you in a way that you just don’t understand until you actually throw yourself into the middle of research... Even if you’re not sure, just go for it.