GREAT FALLS — Interns from the Weissman Hood Institute are making presentations, focusing on research related to neurological and mental health conditions.
"We're interested in studying Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, ALS, schizophrenia," a researcher said.
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Hope Gasvoda, summer program coordinator at the Weissman Hood Institute, explained that the interns have undergone extensive preparation for their presentations.
"They have been here for eight weeks. They spent the first two weeks with me in the lab going through our techniques boot camp, learning technical skills, working on creating their own mini research projects. And then they rotated through each of the labs here," Gasvoda said.
Intern Ellie McCluey's presentation focuses on the use of rodents to study diseases.
"I am going to be presenting on the GEM Core, which is the gene editing mouse models assessment core. They do mouse colony management. And as of recently they just got an MRI at the institute that will enable them to image mouse brains for experimentation," McCluey said.
The research relies heavily on mice because they share significant genetic similarities with humans, making them valuable models for studying diseases.
"One thing is we use a lot of mouse models here, and those are really great for studying these types of diseases, because mice are very genetically similar to humans, but they're not exactly the same," McCluey said.
Intern Alexis White chose to focus on clinical research, an area of personal interest.
"The clinical research rotation, and I picked it because it's really important, because Weissmann Hood is taking steps to move into clinical research. Think of clinical research like the testing like where you see people getting new drugs and therapies," White said.
The research takes on added significance given Montana's mental health challenges. In 2024, Montana ranked 50th in the nation for mental well-being.
"Mental health-wise, Montana was ranked 50th as of 2024, and our teens, 11 to 17 are dying by suicide twice the rate of the national average," White said.
The ultimate goal of these studies is to develop more effective treatments that will benefit the community.
"One of the big goals is to learn more about the diseases, why certain things happen in those diseases, what we can do to potentially change those things, and then how that would translate into patients in the future," Gasvoda said.
