������ɫ

After joining a research lab at ������ɫ, Riya Saraiya — a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience — knew that she wanted to gain more experience in a similar setting.

Eventually, she was accepted into a cutting-edge research project with the Yale University Department of Radiology that allowed her to both conduct research and gain experience working with patients.

The project used the world’s most state-of-the-art PET imaging technology to evaluate how environmental factors, such as air-pollution exposure, might affect the progression of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people around the world.

Contributing to the project strengthened her passion for working in medicine and improving patient outcomes. She is on a medical-school track, and hopes to work on the clinical side of medicine in the future. That’s why the project was such a good fit for her; she was able to analyze and interpret data and think critically about research questions while also screening and running tests on patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Saraiya was supported by her mentors at Yale: David Matuskey, an associate professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, and Salih Cayir, a postdoctoral associate.

Taking on a research project at Yale was a big change, and Saraiya was surprised at how immersed she was able to become in the research; going in, she thought she would primarily be observing and assisting in small tasks. She also wasn’t expecting the project to be so interdisciplinary, she said. As someone studying neuroscience, it was a unique way of blending her topic of study with environmental health and data analysis.

In addition to working with patients, she collected air-pollutant concentrations by using people’s ZIP codes and cross-referenced them with environmental data to find links with brain health.

“I didn’t realize how much work goes into cleaning and organizing data before you can even start analyzing it,” Saraiya said. “Seeing the entire process, from collecting environmental exposure data to interpreting the correlations with brain imaging, was really eye-opening.”

The experience helped her develop several skills that she believes will be valuable in medical school, including her ability to read scientific literature and understand how studies are designed.

“More broadly, it reinforced the importance of looking at health from multiple perspectives,” Saraiya said. “As a future physician, I think it’s really valuable to understand not only the biological mechanisms of disease but also environmental and social factors that can influence health outcomes.”

Through her time researching external factors that can influence Parkinson’s, Saraiya became more confident working in a lab setting. Currently, she is working on another project with the same department while continuing her studies at ������ɫ.

“It’s so interesting to see the connection between environmental factors and neurological disease,” she said. “It made neuroscience feel more applied and real to me because it showed me how research can contribute to complex conditions like Parkinson’s disease. It was exciting to know that the work we were doing could potentially contribute to a better understanding of environmental influences on neurological disorders.”