Josette El Zaklit: Comparing the effects of nanosecond electric pulses to those evoked by conventional electrical stimulation

Josette El ZaklitTitle

Comparing the effects of nanosecond electric pulses to those evoked by conventional electrical stimulation

Mentor

Josette El Zaklit

Department

Electrical and Biomedical Engineering

Biosketch

Josette El Zaklit is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. She received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University in 2016. Her research focuses on studying the effects of high intensity, nanosecond duration electric pulses (NEPs) on neural-type cells and tissues using a combination of numerical cell modeling and experimental approaches. The long-term goal is to work toward the development of new, non-invasive, highly focused electrostimulation technologies for neuromodulation.

Project overview

The project uses bovine adrenal chromaffin cells, a well-characterized model for excitation-neurosecretion coupling, to compare the effects of electrical stimulation with NEPs to those evoked by conventional electrical stimulation (i.e., pulses in the millisecond range). The student will be trained by the faculty mentor and her graduate student working on the project. Some aspects of the project that the student will be involved in are (but not limited to):

  • Fabrication and use of different types of electrodes to apply NEPs and well as pulses of conventional duration to isolated single cells.
  • Use of imaging techniques (whole-cell fluorescence and/or confocal microscopy) to measure calcium responses evoked in the cells in response to various stimuli.
  • Literature search and reading papers about the project to learn about what other people have found.
  • Data analysis using Excel and MATLAB, and summary of the results in Power Point.
  • Weekly meetings with faculty mentor to discuss data and plan for experiments.

The project will help the PREP student improve their experimental, analytical and presentation skills, all of which are essential for their professional development.

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