While some were looking forward to summer sun and a chance to cool the brain cells, others were powering up their synapses with projects that explored neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Two students have been awarded summer studentships from the Neurological Foundation, allowing them to undertake research over the summer.
Neuroscience and psychology student Maggie Hames was studying the calcium signalling pathway at a molecular level.
This pathway was important to allow the transmission of signals throughout the brain.
"That is super important for memory, learning, all of those types of things, all your functions, actually."
The hypothesis was disruption of the pathway occurred as Alzheimer’s developed and as the disease progressed, it became increasingly disrupted, she said.
"So we are trying to figure out why it’s disrupted and how that can be potentially remedied."
Using "massive" microscopes, she would be looking at the cell receptor that allowed the pathway to occur, and seeing how it worked differently in people with Alzheimer’s.
"Essentially, we know that many different things are disrupted in its progression. This just may be one potential aspect to target."
Medical student Zachary Adamson was exploring how Parkinson’s disease starts to develop.
"Parkinson’s is a disease where the neurons stop being able to control their signals properly."
Usually the first signs of the disease were tremors, which occurred when neurons that produced dopamine started dying.
"You need the dopamine to ensure that neurons are firing properly, and not firing erratically."
It was commonly thought Parkinson’s disease developed over time. However there was evidence to show there was a genetic element to it.
Using one of the genetic mutations that was known to develop into Parkinson’s, his research would use a cell model to try to simulate the early development of Parkinson’s in cells.
"By growing dopamine and cortical neurons, we are hoping to see if we can identify a difference in the way that they develop."
This could possibly identify early changes in the cells that signalled the potential of the disease developing.
"By knowing when Parkinson’s starts to develop for people, we might be able to find something that we can actually target as a treatment and stop it progressing."
EXAMS BACK ON CAMPUS
For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic the vast majority of exams were able to be carried out on the University of Otago
campus. A spokesperson said 12,823 students sat 409 exams this semester for a total of 35,268 exam sittings. The final exam was on Saturday, November 12.
The majority of semester two 2022 exams, about 75%, were on campus in Dunedin with the remaining exams being online.
Semester one 2020 and semester two 2021 examinations were fully online due to the pandemic.
The remaining semesters in 2020-2022 were also a mixture of on-campus and online examinations.
