Every year, around 60 undergraduate researchers are awarded the Astronaut Scholarship by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). The ASF is a nonprofit organization created by the Mercury 7 astronauts, and its mission is to support scholars in STEM fields as well as honor the legacy of American astronauts.
One of these scholars, Neha Skandan, is a senior double-majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Public Health. In an interview with The News-Letter, she spoke about her research journey as well as her time at the ASF’s Innovators Symposium & Gala, which honors the 2024 Class of Astronaut Scholars.
Skandan credits the beginning of her research interest to her high school involvement with raising awareness about the opioid epidemic through a community health organization in Pennsylvania, along with Dr. Lynn Fiellin’s play2PREVENT research project at the Yale School of Medicine. Skandan’s work consisted of teaching adolescents about the opioid epidemic and mental health through developing a digital intervention with educator manuals.
“When coming to Hopkins, I was very interested in learning more the research angle to addressing these issues,” she said.
During her freshman fall semester, Skandan joined Dr. Andrew Huhn’s clinical research lab at the Maryland Opioid Research at the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit (BPRU) at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.
She helps with clinical trials analyzing the orexin system’s role in sleep, as sleep disturbances are commonly observed in patients with opioid use disorders. Disrupted sleep can can be one of main the factors that impact the medical treatment and maintenance of an opioid use disorder.
In this lab, Skandan engages in many patient interactions, working in both outpatient and inpatient trials. She collects vitals, administers neurocognitive assessments and questionnaires, and does data management and analysis.
“My work at the BPRU over the past couple of years provided first-hand clinical experience on how opioid use disorder presents itself in individuals. You truly see the impact that the disease has on individuals and, more specifically, how deeply rooted the problem remains in the Baltimore community,“ she said. “Being involved in research, I wanted to understand the underlying neuroscience driving addiction and some of the gaps from a scientific level on why the crisis continues to persist in our communities.”
Contrasting her clinical research, Skandan also started basic science research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine in her freshman spring semester under the guidance of Dr. Mahendra Damarla. She studies apoptosis (programmed cell death) and cell proliferation in the context of acute lung injury, working with biomedical research techniques and products like cell culture, western blots, qPCR, genotyping and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
The chance to utilize what she learned from these seemingly dissimilar labs arose in the summer after her sophomore year at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For two summers, Skandan, at the Neurobiology of Addiction Section at the National Institute on Drug Abuse with Dr. Leandro Vendruscolo, conducted preclinical neuroendocrinology research. The objective of her research was to test how targeting different receptors in the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis — the complex system of pathways involving the stated organs — can help mitigate some of the somatic symptoms tied with alcohol and opioid withdrawal. This included working with animal models, administering injections and learning related behavioral techniques.
Skandan emphasizes that she drew upon all her previous research experiences during her time at the NIH.
“The perspectives that I have gained from my clinical research lab strengthened my background when coming to the NIH where, this time, I worked on a very similar project but from a biomedical, bench research approach,” Skandan added. “Reflecting on both lab experiences, I can see the intersection between medicine and science: how can the presentation of a disease at the clinical level drive the questions we ask at a biological level and vice versa — how can those biological findings translate over to the clinical space.”
Skandan also believes in the importance of analyzing diseases at a global and community level, a perspective that developed during her time at play2PREVENT and became further established while studying Public Health. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the University’s Epidemic Proportions Undergraduate Public Health Journal.
“At Epidemic Proportions, we publish articles on a variety of topics in the field of public health. Everyone has such unique stories and perspectives that we are honored to highlight. Scientific communication is truly important across all fields, and that resonated with me at ASF’s Innovators Symposium and Gala,” she said.
The Innovators Symposium & Gala took place on August 14 to 18, 2024 in Houston, Texas. Sponsored by names like Amazon, Solarcore, RTX and SpaceX, the Gala honors the 2024 Class of Astronaut Scholars.
Skandan addressed her feelings surrounding being an Astronaut Scholar as well as her time at the Gala.
“It is an honor to be a recipient of the Astronaut Scholarship. I am grateful for the incredible resources, network, and support that the ASF has provided,“ she said. “ASF’s Innovators Week was truly a life changing experience and has opened many doors for me. I received an opportunity to present my research at ASF’s Technical Conference to fellow scholars, alumni and the broader ASF audience.”
She spoke more about her fellow scholars and people within the ASF.
“Everyone in attendance has diverse backgrounds in STEM, so a significant component of the conference was being able to effectively present technical research. It was also incredibly inspiring to learn about the research that other scholars have engaged in, especially from other fields in STEM,” she added.
In addition to meeting Astronaut Scholar and alum Christina Koch — mission specialist I of NASA’s Artemis II mission — she also met former NASA astronaut and ASF Board member Scott Altman.
Skandan’s future endeavors include a year-long post-baccalaureate program at the NIH as she applies to M.D./Ph.D. programs, focusing on neuroendocrinology research. She attributes the time spent with her labs with helping her see the connection between medicine and science. She also offered advice for aspiring undergraduate researchers
“Honestly, if something piques your interest, go for it. Don’t hesitate to reach out. People are here to support you and encourage you,“ she said. “Just be open to learning — a lot of research is trying to learn and digging into the unknown.”
