By Guadi Rabino
Staff Writer
This summer a Costa student had the unique opertunity to reserach the depths of the human brain and develop and patten a possible cure for Alzeimers disease.
LA Biomed and UCLA created a partnership this summer in order to focus on high school and college students’ medical careers. This non profit internship gave students hands on experience in the medical field and also taught them how to conduct general medical research. Meera Nagpal, one of Mira Costa’s seniors got the chance to attend the program this summer and began her intensive research immediately.
“Meera has always been very science oriented. She stays after class in her AP sciences to ask her teachers questions beyond what you need to know for the course,” Meera’s sister said. “She always talks about articles she reads in Scientific American and new research about the brain.”
When working at the internship this summer, Nagpal collaborated with college students at LA Biomed to develop and patent a medicine to treat the symptoms of the currently incurable Alzheimer’s disease.
“There’s this new computer program called PyRx that can simulate the chemical properties of the medicine and the receptors it affects in the brain on the computer itself,” Nagpal said. “So what I did, along with another college student, was modify the chemical properties of a medicine called Galantamine and run simulations on the computer program to test its binding affinity to the receptors.”
Nagpal’s passion has involved neuroscience for a very long time. Influenced by her dad’s profession of finance and his involvement in the psychology of economic policies and the behaviors of markets, Nagpal became interested in psychology. This led to her interest on the study of the brain.
“I find the brain really fascinating, especially the field of psychology. My dad is in finance so he always talks about the psychology behind economic policies and the behavior of markets, etc,” Nagpal said. “I guess he sparked my interest in this field. I like neuroscience specifically because it combines biology, my favorite subject, with psychology.”
When working at the LA Biomed internship this summer, Nagpal found there were an abundance of new things for her to yet to learn. She was very intrigued by the program and excited with her newly found knowledge on neuroscience.
“I learned the science behind chemical reactions between medicine and the receptors in the brain. It was cool to see how simple chemical changes to the molecule, like adding methyl or hydroxyl groups, dramatically changes the effect it has on the brain,” Nagpal said. “I understood much more about the depth of neuroscience and how it’s really a multidisciplinary field, in which chemistry, biology and physics all play an important role.”
Nagpal found that her summer program greatly assisted her at school and led her to have a much better and a more profound understanding of the different sciences.
“It really helped me appreciate the importance of all three sciences, especially physics because I know a lot of people get bored by that subject but it’s actually one of the most important fields,” says Nagpal. “By understanding the combination of physics with biology and chemistry, the research you do in any medical field becomes so much easier and more comprehensive.”
Nagpal, when asked about her overall experience at LA Biomed, seems very pleased with her research done and the things learned over the past summer. She is excited to apply her knowledge gained, everyday at school. (36)
“I thought it was an extremely enriching experience that was both fun and educational at the same time. Im so grateful to la biomed for granting me this opportunity,” Nagpal said.
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