In February, Linnea Freeman, associate professor of biology and neuroscience, flew to Salt Lake City and spent three days at the University of Utah in immunologist Gianna Hammer\u2019s lab. There, Freeman tested young and old mice with symptoms of colitis for anxiety and sociability, and recorded teaching videos so Hammer\u2019s researchers could learn to do these behavioral tests on the animals, too.<\/p>\n
The goal of this cross-country collaboration is to better understand how age, the bacteria that populate the mouse gut, and immune cells intersect. The work was funded by a grant of $55,000 each to Freeman, Hammer and Lisa Osborne, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia. The scientists won the award during the second year of a three-year \u201cScialog\u201d fellowship in Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease through the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA). As an RCSA Scialog fellow, Freeman and 50 other early career faculty gathered three times\u2014both virtually and in person\u2014to discuss the big questions of the brain and gut, a little bit \u201clike a think tank,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The project Hammer and Freeman hatched at Scialog continued this summer, looping in three Furman undergraduate researchers. The folks in the Hammer lab maintained the mouse model, conducted immunology experiments and recorded videos of the behavioral tests Freeman taught them to do on the mice. One of Freeman\u2019s students analyzed them.<\/p>\n
Freeman\u2019s group also took delivery of mouse brains from Utah. They sliced this neural tissue thinner than paper, then used a technique to visualize the main immune cells of the brain, called microglia, under a microscope. By looking at differences in the number and location of microglia present in the mouse brains and how the young and old mice with and without colitis symptoms behave, the team can explore how age and gut inflammation affect inflammation in the nervous system and subsequent behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat excites me the most about neuroscience is the uncharted territory,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cOur brains control everything, but there\u2019s so much that we don\u2019t know about. I feel like I\u2019ll never be out of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n