Each summer, students from across the U.S. and metro spend part of their break at UNMC enhancing their skills in a variety of programs.
The Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) offers opportunities to gain basic science experience and enhance competitiveness for graduate programs.
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Joshua Combs |
- Name: Joshua Combs
- Hometown:Dayton, Ohio
- Undergraduate year: Junior, University of Nebraska at Omaha
What sparked your interest in science?
My interest in science was sparked early in my life when I was more interested in the bugs crawling around in my sandbox then the sand itself. Common young boy things I’d imagine. I didn’t know it at the time but this was the beginning of the habit I’d call science.
As I got older, my questions became less juvenile. It was six years ago that I started focusing on degenerative neurological diseases when my grandfather passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. Since then I’ve continuously wondered what happened and how could I have helped? In general, that is a question I am still trying to answer.
Describe your summer project?
I’ve worked with a graduate student, Kristi Anderson, under Dr. Lee Mosley within the College of Medicine’s Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience department. Ms. Anderson investigates the effects of specific drugs in mouse models of Parkinson’s disease (PD). For my summer project, I have quantitated, by immunofluorescence microscopy, the numbers of dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons within different brain areas that Ms. Anderson analyzed. This research has given me experience in genotype analysis, histological sectioning of brain tissue using a cryostat, immunofluorescence staining, and a fair amount of microscopy.
How will this summer program fit into your career plans?
This summer program has fit into my future career plans as my invaluable first lab experience as well as helped me further refine what my career plans actually are. Reading and studying about an activity can only get you so far. It wasn’t until I was actually in a non-academic related lab, performing activities that were unassociated with my GPA, that I could honestly say whether or not I wanted to pursue this as a career. This program has shown me that I would like to pursue this as a career.