Mia

Mia
Boston Latin Academy
Boston, MA

Mentors: 
Gabi Drummond & Tamar Paserman
Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research
 

Mia spent her BSSP summer investigating a fundamental question about schizophrenia: could genetic risk for the disorder alter the timing of important developmental changes in the brain? Her project focused on Grin2a, a gene that encodes part of the NMDA receptor, which plays important roles in neuronal signaling, learning, and memory.

Rare loss-of-function mutations in GRIN2A have been linked to schizophrenia risk. Mia and her partner Karly studied mice carrying reduced Grin2a function to investigate whether this genetic change affects the brain's critical period, a developmental window during which neural circuits are particularly plastic. They examined two markers: parvalbumin (PV), associated with specialized inhibitory neurons involved in critical-period development, and Wisteria floribunda lectin (WFL), which labels perineuronal nets associated with critical-period closure.

Mia gained experience with a complete histological workflow: preparing mouse brain tissue, sectioning it using a vibratome, immunohistochemical staining, mounting tissue onto slides, fluorescence imaging with an Axio Scan.Z1 slide scanner, identifying specific brain regions, and quantifying fluorescent signals.

The team compared wild-type and Grin2a heterozygous mice across the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, somatosensory cortex, and thalamus. At 12 weeks, heterozygous mice showed fewer PV-positive cells across several regions, while WFL differences were particularly apparent in the thalamus. These observations suggest that reduced Grin2a function may alter neuronal maturation, with the thalamus emerging as an especially interesting region for continued investigation.

Mia learned how histology, fluorescent markers, brain anatomy, and quantitative imaging can connect a genetic risk factor to specific developmental changes in neural tissue.

Her project demonstrates how researchers can move from a genetic association with psychiatric disease to a testable question about brain development. Future work at earlier developmental stages will help determine when these differences first emerge.

For Mia, the impact of the experience was difficult to reduce to a single technique or result. Her own summary was simple: “BSSP was transformative!” - a fitting reflection on a summer spent connecting genetics, brain development, imaging, and disease biology in a real research setting.