Melanie McNally ’06 (right) majored in biology and will work in the Pain Research Center, Department of Anesthesia, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, then teach in the Citizen Schools after-school program this fall.

“Peripheral Nervous System Manifestations in a Sandhoff Disease Mouse Model: Nerve Conduction, Myelin Structure, Lipid Analysis”

Daniel A. Kirschner, professor, biology department

“Melanie carried out her experiments in three laboratories, at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Boston College. Her research explored the electrophysiology, structure, and composition of myelinated tissue from the peripheral nervous system of a mouse model for human Sandhoff disease. In this devastating ganglioside disease, there is an incomplete metabolic breakdown of the lipid GM2, which leads to gradual storage of the lipid, inflammatory responses, and subsequent neurodegeneration in the brain. Melanie addressed the question whether there are any correlates of the disease in the peripheral nervous system, which also contains GM2. Her findings demonstrated the utility of using complementary techniques for quantitating myelin functional and structural integrity, a strategy that will be useful for future studies of demyelinating neuropathies. Her project, which had an unusual level of difficulty, yielded valuable data.”