I worked on a project in the Ryan/Doucette Neuroscience lab which will help further characterize a novel animal model of schizophrenia. Animal models are experimental treatments that mimic human conditions, such as schizophrenia, and help in the development of new treatments and preventative methods. The current animal model involved stimulating a chemical system in the brains of young rats during a critical period of brain development. We then determined whether this caused rats to exhibit various behavioural symptoms and associated neurochemical alterations that are characteristic of schizophrenia.

The main goal of my project was to examine whether these experimental animals also showed underactivity of the dopamine system in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain involved in thinking and planning, by examining the amount of tyrosine hydroxylase, a key enzyme needed for the production of dopamine, and the number of dopamine receptors in the prefrontal cortex of experimental animals.

This project is significant in that it will help to further characterize and develop this animal model which could then possibly be used in the development of new treatments for schizophrenia.

Other members of the lab have shown that experimental animals exhibit several behavioural changes characteristic of schizophrenia, so I was eager to look at whether the animals also exhibit neurochemical changes characteristic of schizophrenia. One such neurochemical change that is observed in the clinical population is an underactivity of a chemical pathway known as the dopamine system.

The most exciting thing about my summer research was having the opportunity to successfully develop two immuno protocols that haven't been used in the lab before.