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Hey all--

My name is Emily Hinchcliff and I am a senior biology major at Haverford. My current research has little to do with the NBS field, though the basics of cellular development, mechanics, etc. are applicable to almost anything. I'm working in Professor Punt's lab, with Elliot, doing immunology research. Basically, we are looking at the underlying physiological differences between mature and immature T-cells and the resulting differences in cell fate decisions; I'm particularly focused on the cytoskeleton/microtubule modifications. I'm pre-med and will attend medical school eventually, but really want to take a gap-year to go abroad and teach (hopefully!).

The reason I am NBS is because I was drawn early on to the psych courses offered, especially those with a molecular/biological basis. I think its fascinating to try to connect cellular phenomena with actual mental function, and I am especially interested in research that deals with neural development. After the last class discussion, I thought a lot about the use of animal models-- like what Kara said, how accurate can an animal model truly be? and can we get all the information we need from them, without true feedback about mental state? can we even get 'true feedback' from human subjects, what with differences in perception and response? Another thing that I was thinking about, as well, was the idea of the use of drug models for disease. Can we truly mimic disease states (the issue of what is a disease state is a whole different topic) with drugs/chemicals? how accurate will such experiments be if we really only model based on phenotype/outcome? I think this would be a really interesting discussion topic for one class.

See you all on Tuesday...