The Minnesota Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation
Arif Hamid
College and major
Short biography
I have been influenced by numerous mentors whom have helped me carve out more realistic, accurate and crisp carrier goals. My personality is that I ask many questions and ponder for solutions. This, along with the discipline of science, draw me towards the field of research. While basic sciences are pivotal in providing an understanding of our world and setting a basis for possible interventions when bodily systems go awry, it rarely finds direct answers to clinical pathologies we face as a species. Thus I am fascinated in the transition of bench top research to clinical and interventional medicine. I aspire to become a physician scientist, a lifelong commitment to learning and an unfailing dedication towards the bettering of human life. . In order to help others like me, especially those with a passion for research and of underrepresented background, I enrolled as a peer mentor for Northstar STEM alliance.
Research and collaborators
I participate in research on campus with Dr. Janet Dubinsky. At the Dubinsky lab in the deparment of Neuroscinece, I take part in a mutli-fascited approach to gain further understanding of the genetic neurodegenerative disorder of Huntington disease. In the past, I have taken part in characterizing the behavioral differences among the R6/2 (a mouse model of the Huntington Disease) and littermate control animals. In addition, we have also evaluated stress sensitivity and seizure disposition of these mouse models. Current Projects I am taking a part in are the identification of central feedback circuitry of minerallocorticoids and glucocorticoid hormone release in the mouse brain. We base these experiments on earlier observations and indications that R6/2 mouse may have a dysfunction in salt-water regulation (a minneralocorticoid function) and altered plasma corticosterone regulation (a glucocorticoid function). The laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach in finding answers to these questions; and I specifically take part in identifying the changes in minerallocorticoid receptor and Glucocorticoid receptor expression in central brain regions associated with provided a feedback regulation of these hormones.