Even before taking her first class at Rutgers, Julia Rhodes had already had a paper published in a national scientific journal and had worked on a research project at the Rutgers Brain Health Institute.
Her initial foray into research came during her junior year at Council Rock South High School in Holland, Pennsylvania, when she designed a project to test the memory capabilities of a tiny flatworm called a planarian.
The project, for an independent research class in STEM, showed that the worms retained their ability to turn away from a red light she pointed at them with a laser, after they had been dissected and had regenerated their heads and tails.
Her study was published last February in The Journal of Emerging Investigators, which is dedicated to the research of middle and high school students. “I was very excited about that,” said Rhodes, who also won first place at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science State Science Fair.
Her success led her to contact professors at Rutgers to ask if she could work on a project in one of their labs. Professor Gary Aston-Jones, director of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute, allowed her to join a study exploring whether insomnia medication could prevent addiction to prescription opioids.
During the summer of 2023, Rhodes commuted to the institute in Piscataway to give opioid injections to rats, conduct behavioral tests on them, and analyze their brain tissue.
“Julia was a diligent worker, and she helped us make progress toward our goal of uncovering novel therapies for opioid use disorder,” said Kimberly Newman, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience who mentored Rhodes.
A Rutgers Presidential Scholarship recipient, Rhodes plans to major in cognitive science at Rutgers and hopes to continue her research on the brain. “I want to join a lab and keep pursuing that kind of work,” she said. “It’s really exciting that I got to start before going to college.”
FULL SOURCE: Rutgers Today | Rutgers Welcomes the Class of 2028