Ms. Shelley Lee received a summer 2016 Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU) Fellowship to continue her research in the Dailey Lab.  

Ms. Lee notes that: “The research project that I desire to work on is focused on how the different types of glial cells can affect neuronal damage after brain injury from exposure to toxins. What makes this research appealing to me is the entire experimentation process and the potential value of the results.”  

Her project, entitled “Effects of Environmental Toxins on Brain Glial Cells,” will explore the effect of pesticides commonly used in homes and in agriculture on brain glial cell activation and survival.  This work is being done in collaboration with the lab of Dr. Jonathan Doorn (UI College of Pharmacy).  The collaborative project was funded by a pilot grant (“Contribution of Glial Cells to Neurotoxicity and Neurodegeneration,” J. Doorn, PI) from the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC), which is a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Center of Excellence at the University of Iowa.