Hildebrand Scholarship Recipient - Famesh Patel

Famesh Patel is the recipient of the $5,000 Hildebrand Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a student with upper-division standing and plans to pursue graduate studies in neuroscience or a life sciences-related field.  Thanks to the prestigious Hildebrand Scholarship, Mr. Patel was able to join the Miller Lab over the summer and will continue to work in this lab over the upcoming academic year. Mr. Patel has been working on a project analyzing the impacts of alpha-synuclein aggregation on Parkinsonian-like vocal symptoms in zebra finches. Additionally, Mr. Patel has learned the techniques necessary for immunohistochemistry experiments where antibodies are applied to examine neuronal protein expression patterns in the finch brain and visualize them using confocal-like microscopy. Although the research is still ongoing, the data collected will be part of a scientific paper, which will be presented at the Society for Neuroscience 2024 and the W.A. Franke Honors Pinnacle Event, as well contributing to Mr. Patel’s Honors Thesis which focuses on Parkinson's Disease effect on vocal changes.