The following blog post was written by fellow UHPer and Spring 2023 SURE Award recipient, Lexi Carmine (Biomedical Engineering Major, ’24). Read on about how Lexi plans to utilize the SURE Award funding to further expand upon her research experience!

With the ability to control the sleep-wake cycle, hormone secretion, and cardiovascular health among other things, the circadian rhythm is an indispensable process within the human body. A disruption in the circadian clock would thus be very damaging to an individual over an extended period of time for a number of reasons ranging from fatigue to disorders such as depression and anxiety. Thus, when a disruption is present it is vital to use therapeutic techniques to restore the natural rhythm. The most optimal way to treat a disrupted circadian rhythm is to fix the amount of endogenous melatonin within the system by manipulating the amount that is being released by the pineal gland, which is an important structure located deep within the human brain. The gland secretes melatonin from the pinealocyte cells by way of tryptophan and serotonin biosynthetic pathways. Previous work has shown that low intensity therapeutic ultrasound releases insulin from human islets and rodent pancreas at increased levels all while retaining cell viability. Extending these findings to other endocrine diseases could determine if ultrasound changes the release of melatonin from the pineal gland, which could potentially reestablish previously disrupted circadian rhythms.

This research is something I am extremely grateful to get to take part in and I have learned so much throughout the process of this research and am looking forward to seeing what the results of the project show. I am planning on utilizing the award money by purchasing a melatonin ELISA kit in order to see how much melatonin the rat pineal glands are producing before and after ultrasound exposure. We have exposed the glands to the ultrasound and the next step is to complete the ELISA kits in order to collect the data and see some results.

I am extremely grateful for the SURE program for supporting my research endeavors two years in a row and continuing to help me learn more and more about research.

Interested in applying for your own SURE Award funding? Find out more about the application process here!