New Year Is Off to Good Start @ Nguyen Lab
On March 24, 2024, Blake Reeves, a newly admitted Ph.D. student at Baylor’s Psychology & Neuroscience, inaugurated the start of the new research year at the Nguyen Lab by presenting a poster at the 16th Annual Behavior, Biology, and Chemistry: Translational Research in Substance Use Disorders conference in San Antonio, TX.
Blake put before public the results of the project entitled “Expression of behavior and extracellular matrix structures after acute or repeated oxycodone exposure and abstinence in male and female Wistar rats,” which was completed in collaboration with other lab members Mariana Dejeux, Sarah Jewanee, Nathan Cheng, Jacklyn Staffeld, Dr. Benjamin Schwartz and Dr. Jacques Nguyen.
The data presented by Blake suggest that repeated oxycodone administration, followed by abstinence from the drug, may alter expression of extracellular matrix structures called perineuronal nets (PNNs). PNNs are crucial to memory, emotional regulation, and reward. These findings contribute to our understanding of the behavioral and neurobiological impacts of single versus repeated instances of oxycodone administration in rodents.
McNair Scholars Research
In Summer 2023, members of the Nguyen Lab supported fellow lab member Sarah Jewanee at the McNair Scholars Research Conference where she presented the behavioral effects of oxycodone administration, an experimental study that measured withdrawal. (pictured from left to right: Dr. Nguyen, Aliyah Ogden, Danielle Sogbesan, Mariana Dejeux, Sarah Jewanee, Hamid Koroni, Evan Farach, Benjamin Schwartz).
The Baylor University Annual McNair Scholar Conference is held every year to provide a platform to undergraduate students of all disciplines to present their research. The McNair Scholars Program is a federally funded program (one of the TRIO Programs funded by the Department of Education) mandated by Congress. The goal of the program is to increase the number of students in doctoral degree programs who are low-income and first-generation undergraduates, or students who come from groups underrepresented in graduate education.
During the summer of 2023, Sarah Jewanee, undergraduate research assistant from the Nguyen Lab, investigated the behavioral effects of oxycodone and naloxone administration in male and female Wistar rats under the mentorship and leadership of Dr. Jacques Nguyen. On August 3rd and 4th, Sarah was able to showcase the hard work she had put in throughout the summer and presented her very first oral and poster presentation. She is thankful to all the students in the Nguyen lab for their help and support throughout the course of her project and for the guidance of her graduate mentor, Ms. Mariana Dejeux.
