Name: Fleur Uittenbogaard
Central Nervous System: Neuroscience
The central nervous system encompasses the brain and spinal cord. It's called the "central" nervous system for a reason: it acts as the "hub" of the nervous system that integrates all incoming information and influences the entire body. This is the way I feel about my major: Neuroscience. As this extended metaphor may suggest, neuroscience is what has integrated all of my experiences at UW. My passion for learning, teaching, and the spreading of (?) neuroscience is what has motivated me to pursue opportunities such as research, peer mentoring, and writing. Here, I detail my path to neuroscience at UW and how it has expanded beyond just my major.
The Prep
My story starts my first quarter at UW. Bright eyed and brushy tailed, I began the general chemistry sequence in Autumn Quarter. I was in for a brutal awakening about the level of rigor of science-- or really, all STEM-- courses at the college level. Never before had I experienced seemingly endless homework, truly intensely difficult exams, and of course, the dreaded curve.
Thankfully, I eventually got the hang of these, and faired a little better in my introductory biology and organic chemistry courses. While I can't say that SN2 reactions, photosynthesis, or calorimetry will per say help me in my future as a neuroscientist, I can say with confidence that they helped me learn the study methods and learning styles that work best for me.
But then again, applying to the neuroscience major sophomore year made the countless hours working on ALEKS objectives, studying for exams, writing lab reports, and reviewing the Krebs Cycle worth it.... except that I didn't get in. Now, this wasn't a huge surprise, I knew it was pretty competitive, especially as a sophomore, but it still stung. This also meant that the pressure to perform well in my remaining organic chemistry courses sophomore year was significant.
That being said, this setback did inspire me to not wait to get involved with neuroscience on campus, and is a contributing factor in my integration with the UW neuroscience community, as well as research, which I value greatly. It also made the eventual acceptance Junior year all the more rewarding.
UW Neuroscience
While I knew at time of my initial application to the UW that I wanted to major in neuroscience, my reasoning behind it changed along the way.
I was initially pre-med. This meant that I mostly viewed neuroscience as something that might be viewed favorably by some admissions committee somewhere. After getting rejected from the major during my first application, I really had to do some soul searching. Since I was beginning to doubt that I even wanted to go to medical school at all by this point, my motivation to study neuroscience had wavered. However, this was also the time where I got involved with neuroscience research.
Having the opportunity to engage in research was incredibly enlightening, and made me fall in love with neuroscience-- for the right reasons this time. I became fascinated with the internal processes behind our native functions, the ways exogenous substances interact with our bodies, and higher cognitive functions like emotions, language, and memories.
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When I finally got into the major, I was fortunate to be able to explore these questions. We've studied many topics-- neural systems, anatomy, cellular and molecular interactions, and neuropharmacology being just a few. Pictured on the left is one of the *many* lab reports that I had to write across Neusci 301 and 302. This one was perhaps one of the more confusing reports: the cockroach flight lab, where we recorded extracellularly from a cockroach thorax while it flew (still attached to the recording wires).
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Something else that I initially spent a lot of time stressing about but ended up finding pretty fun was that we were tasked with creating our own experiment and presenting on the resulting data. The powerpoint presentation featured on the top left is what me and my amazing lab partners presented on back in Autumn Quarter.
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Finally, one of the other group projects I was part of happened in Neusci 403: computational neuroscience. The course culminated in a 10-15 minute presentation on a topic of our choosing. The presentation on the bottom left is what we landed on.
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Being part of the UW neuroscience program has been such a privilege, and I am confident that it has prepared me for what is yet to come.
Research
Research was my first actual exposure to neuroscience at UW. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I began to work in the labs of Drs. Michael Bruchas and Nephi Stella, under the guidance of Anthony English, a PhD candidate in Pharmacology.
My work has largely focused on the neuropharmacology of THC, the psychoactive component of Cannabis. My primary project has been creating and optimizing a voluntary oral model for THC consumption in mice, using an Ensure gelatin formula. This is aimed at filling a gap in the field: oral consumption, which is especially pertinent with the growing popularity of high-dose THC edibles on the market.
I've been fortunate enough to participate in two summer research programs: the 2021 NAPE Summer Research Fellowship and the 2022 Scan Design Foundation Innovations in Pain Summer Research Program. I've also been privileged to be funded by the Mary Gates Endowment for Students through the Mary Gates Research Scholarship. Without these opportunities, I would not have had the means to engage in research to the extent that I have, nor would I have gained as much exposure to different fields within neuroscience.
I've also had the opportunity to present my contributions to these projects several times, a few of which are featured on the right-hand panel. The top is a poster of my main research project I described earlier, at the 2022 UW Center for Cannabis Research Annual Retreat, and the bottom is my most recent presentation at the annual UW Undergraduate Research Symposium, focused on how THC interacts with endocannabinoid regulated circuits in movement behaviors.
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My experience working in the Bruchas and Stella labs has been incredible, and is a huge factor in my success as an undergraduate. It is also what inspired me to pursue graduate school to begin with, something that has truly changed my life.
My First Publication
My research has culminated in my first publication. I was fortunate enough to earn second authorship. The paper is still currently in review, but has been published online to bioRxiv.
English, Anthony; Uittenbogaard, Fleur; Torrens, Alexa; Slaven, Anna; Piomelli, Danielle; Bruchas, Michael; Stella, Nephi; Land, Benjamin. A Preclinical Model of THC Edibles that Produces High-Dose Cannabimimetic Responses. Seattle, WA; University of Washington.
My Mentors
Below are my amazing mentors-- I could not have done any of this without them. I'm eternally grateful for how caring, supportive, and inspirational they have been.
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