Since her junior year, Honors College neuroscience major Nitheyaa Shree has been working on research that seeks to better understand the mechanisms
of degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s. “I really like learning about how our brain learns things and how our brain remembers things,” said Shree, a Georgia State Presidential Scholar, Goldwater Scholar and Honors College Ambassador.

Shree’s work in Professor Angela Mabb’s research lab studies the role
that a specific protein, known as ARC, plays in learning behaviors in the aging brain. “What we’re trying to figure is the role of ARC’s degradation. What
we know is that there is a lot of this protein in diseases like Alzheimer’s,” she explained. “Somehow, the normal brain will get rid of this protein; it will degrade the protein. What we’re looking at is what is the role of this protein’s degradation in normal learning and memory behaviors.”

Shree was prepared to present her research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR),

which draws students from across the country. NCUR was to be held on March 2020 at Montana State University. Her plans were dashed when the COVID-19 pandemic forced NCUR to cancel suddenly. “NCUR was also supposed to be the first annual Goldwater Scholars meeting. We were going to have some of our own workshops and events,” she said. “I was really sad.”

But Shree is not deterred. She now has her sights set on presenting at virtual conferences, and she’s hoping that the pandemic will recede enough so that she can present in-person again soon. She’ll use her Just-in-Time funding to help offset the cost of the hefty registration fees and supplies.

Just-in-Time funding is essential to undergraduates, said Shree, because
it supports their participation in conferences where they can showcase their work and network with other scholars in their fields. “I think having that network is very important because I want to go into academia,” she said.

“And the funding allows me to have those experiences that I wouldn’t otherwise.”

—Kathleen Baydala Joyner, Director, Communications, Honors College, Georgia State University, EmeriTies Winter, 2021