Graduate Student Has Passion For Science in the Lab, in the Community

For centuries, scientists have been studying how the human brain functions and while, in that time, many important discoveries have been made, there are many more that are still left to be uncovered.

This opportunity for discovery, and to make an impact on people’s lives, is what drives graduate student Matt Baker. He recently finished his second year as a graduate student in UNO’s Department of Biology, studying the effects that stress can have on the brain.

"In our lab, the main goal of what we are doing here is really trying to understand what is going on in the brain that causes individuals to react to, and cope with, stress differently,” he explains. “We actually do this by monitoring a number of different stress and anxiety-related behaviors in zebrafish."

Baker explains that the importance of understanding how stress impacts the brain goes well beyond scientific curiosity. It can improve the lives of millions of people and have a significant economic impact both for individuals and for society as a whole.

“More specific to our lab's work, mental illness and disorders really place a huge burden on society as well as the individuals that have those conditions, whether its treatment costs, healthcare costs, or loss of productivity.”

This is the message that Baker recently brought to Nebraska’s elected officials during a two-day April visit to Capitol Hill as part of an initiative from the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Thanks to funding from the Animal Behavior Society and UNO’s Office of Research and Creative Activity (ORCA), Baker joined other scientists and fellow graduate students in meeting with members of Congress to discuss the importance of federal funding to support biological research and education.

“I emphasized how important it is to really understand what is going on in the brain - to ultimately understand that better and how we can make new therapeutic options based on novel targets in the brain, or even just understanding why so many individuals may be more prone to developing mental disorders rather than others,” he explains.

It was also important for Baker to argue for continued federal funding, through organizations like the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, because he has been able to focus entirely on his classes and research thanks to similar funding organized through ORCA. Baker received a Graduate Research and Creative Activity grant to fund his research efforts last summer. This summer he was awarded with the Rhoden Biological Fellowship through UNO’s Office of Graduate Studies.

Research funding is also important to Baker’s advisor, Ryan Wong, an assistant professor of biology, whose research explores a variety of complex animal behaviors, including reactions to stress. He says it is important to understand how similar biological systems in other animals work because it provides a roadmap to understanding our own.