After completing two years of preclinical science studies at Cornell University Medical College, I affiliated with the laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, headed by Bruce McEwen, at the Rockefeller University. There I have chosen to study the role of cytokine expression in the central nervous system (CNS), specifically, with respect to their function in response to stress and injury in the hippocampus. Cytokines have been implicated in the pathophysiology of a number of neurologic disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and AIDS-dementia complex. Moreover, immune function in the CNS remains poorly characterize. I believe the study of this interaction will lead to a better understanding of the function cytokines perform in maintaining homeostasis in the CNS, as well as role they play in inflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders. Ultimately, this will offer us an opportunity to find targets for therapeutics and further understand the basis for a number of poorly understood diseases of the nervous system.
