Jaci

Hello! 

My name is Jaci Yong and I am a sophomore at the University at Albany majoring in Psychology and minoring in Neuroscience. I joined Dr. Scimemi’s neuroscience research lab as a volunteer from Fall 2021 to Spring 2022. After attending one of Dr. Scimemi’s virtual seminars in the Honor’s College during my freshman year about glutamate transporters and the mechanisms that control neurotransmitter release and information transfer among neurons, I became very interested in her research and wanted to get involved with it. Later that summer, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement sent out an email saying that Dr. Scimemi was looking to recruit 2 undergraduate students to join her lab in Fall 2021, so I filled out an application, was interviewed, and then accepted into the lab.

As a student who was spending my first year in college learning remotely from home, I felt a bit isolated from the campus community and from research opportunities, which is a big reason why I wanted to get involved in research as soon as I was able to go to campus in-person. I had never worked in a research lab previously, so my first day touring the lab felt a bit intimidating, but I met a lot of great people in the lab who were eager to share their work with me and explain things that I was unsure about. 

In Dr. Scimemi’s research lab, I shadowed PhD student Ben Bennink for my first semester and was trained in mouse colony management and behavior analysis. I worked with the other new undergraduate student, Stephanie Fischer in running behavioral experiments with different groups of mice. Having never worked with animals in a research setting, working with mice (especially newborn mice) took some getting used to, but eventually as I worked with them more frequently and they got older, I became a lot more comfortable. Another challenge I faced was learning how to run software such as MATLAB and Igor Pro for data collection and analysis. I had very little knowledge about technology and coding before this lab, but after becoming more familiar with these programs, I have definitely learned a lot more and I am still learning more new things every day! I have applied to continue conducting behavior research in the 2022-2023 academic year under the Honors Psychology Department and I am excited to explore more aspects of neuroscience research in this lab as well!