New
Life Perfect Fit for New Grad
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – Theanne
Griffith ’08
has two passions: Latin American culture and neuroscience.
She has studied Spanish
since age 13 and now speaks the language fluently. And
after four years at Smith—much
of it spent in neuroscience laboratories—she effortlessly
speaks in the scientific vernacular as well.
 Griffith, who will graduate
on Sunday, May 18, with a bachelor’s
degree in neuroscience and Spanish, will return to Santiago,
Chile, where she spent last summer on a Praxis internship,
to begin her job as a laboratory technician in the cellular-molecular
biology department at La Pontificia Universidad Catolica
de Chile.
Though Griffith will continue
her life of lab work, spending quiet and often solitary
hours analyzing molecular mechanisms through a microscope
lens, her work may have visible impact on the world’s fight against Alzheimer’s Disease.
Griffith will analyze one neurological pathway’s effect
on the brain’s molecules that pertain to that disease.
“I will be working on a project that will look to
better understand how the activation of a signaling pathway
in the brain leads to protection against neurological damages
caused by Alzheimer’s Disease,” she explained. “The
lab I will be working in has a cellular and molecular focus,
therefore we will be using techniques such as fluorescence
microscopy, western blotting and cell cultures.”
While at Smith, Griffith
worked with Adam Hall, associate professor of biological
sciences, analyzing the effects of anesthetics on one of
the brain’s acid receptors. Her
Smith lab work gave her confidence as a scientist as she
goes to work in a professional lab, she said. “After
working in Professor Hall’s lab for four years, I feel
well prepared to tackle the various types of research questions
I may be presented with in the future,” she said.
Her experiences served Griffith well when she attended the
Pan-American Symposium on Neurovirology recently in Guadalajara,
Mexico. The symposium, which met from April 24 through 26,
focused on AIDS, cancer and neurodegeneration. The symposium,
which is coordinated by the Pan-American Society of Neurovirology
(PASNV), is among the pre-eminent professional events in
the fields of biology and neuroscience.
“This conference combined two of my interests,” said
Griffith, “Latin America and neuro-science. But beyond
that, the conference also gave me an opportunity to meet
and network with scientists who are distinguished leaders
in their respective areas of study.”
When she’s not in the lab next year, Griffith plans
to further cultivate her love of Latin American culture,
she says. When she lived in Chile last summer, she familiarized
herself with the area by taking excursions during work breaks,
such as a four-day trip to Bolivia to see its famous Uyuni
salt flat. “I had never been to Bolivia before and
I thought it was the perfect time to explore another Latin
American country whose culture I had not previously experienced.”
For Griffith, it’s
the perfect setting to expand on her two passions. |
