From: Eva Yezerets
Baltimore, Maryland
formerly of Columbus
In 2009, I was a sixth grader at Southside Elementary studying for my science fair project by asking my classmates to take math tests after watching cartoons. Little did I know that 16 years later, I would be a PhD student at Johns Hopkins University, using coding to watch a tiny worm’s “brain” rewire itself.
At universities around the globe, biomedical researchers work together to answer questions about how the human body works, in health and illness. We do this work because our friends’, families’, and neighbors’ stories matter to us. So why am I talking about worms?
When I graduated from Columbus North High School in 2016, I knew I liked science. I also needed answers about my grandfather’s Parkinson’s disease. At Purdue University, our lab worked together to track down what happens in our cells when Parkinson’s strikes. My grandfather’s experience motivated me to sit behind a microscope for hours, hunting for clues. Still, there were so many questions about the brain I wanted to explore.
At Hopkins, I now build computer code to find patterns in brain data. I study what’s changing over time and what’s different from animal to animal or person to person. In our lab, we discover brain circuits in healthy brains, including the nervous system of the worm C. elegans, and we compare them to brains that get sick or have disorders like epilepsy.
But our lab’s work depends on federal funding from the NIH and NSF, agencies that are under threat. We may lose our funding. In Indiana, Purdue and IU may have to cut staff, resources, and research opportunities for their students and faculty. In the long run, companies like Cummins that are essential to the Columbus community (and brought my family to Columbus) may also have more trouble recruiting well-trained engineers. And people with brain disorders and diseases like Parkinson’s, which affects about 20,000 people in Indiana, may have to wait longer for answers.
It’s easy to ask why the United States should invest in something as seemingly unimportant as the study of worms. The truth is that they teach us the basics of how all brains work. Researchers, including many students like me, work over decades and across borders to find the causes, treatments, and cures for diseases. Every little step counts. This is hard work, and it takes serious resources to buy microscopes, keep computers running, train students, and keep facilities clean and safe. We cannot make progress on our basic understanding of brains or on applications to treat diseases like Parkinson’s without money from the government.
All it takes is a phone call to stand up for science funding in next year’s federal budget. Call your congressional representatives and ask them to support science funding. The future of science depends on you.
Sen. Jim Banks: (202) 224-4814
Sen. Todd Young: (202) 224-5623
District 6 Rep. Jefferson Shreve: (202) 225-3021
District 9 Rep. Erin Houchin: (202) 225-5315
