Fighting For Research That Matters
POTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, is an autonomic nervous system disorder that affects blood flow in between 1 million and 3 million Americans, typically women and young adults. Those numbers are growing as POTS and other forms of dysautonomia have been diagnosed as long-term impacts from COVID-19. The symptoms include fainting spells, seizures, respiratory issues and digestive trouble.Nina Kikel-Coury, a graduate student in Professor Cody Smith's lab, suffers from POTS which placed her at a higher risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. She needed to remain completely isolated during the pandemic and could no longer work alongside others in her research lab. But the team rallied around her.Her lab mates designated hours when Nina could work alone, and they continued her experiments when she couldn’t be present sending results via email or FaceTime. With all this support, Nina made a scientific breakthrough, discovering a new cell in the heart—cardiac nexus glia—which may help explain and treat conditions like hers.“Identifying cardiac nexus glia could have a huge impact, not only with the neuroscience field but also the cardiovascular field,” she says. “Currently no one knows why dysautonomia occurs in a lot of people. And so personally it’s really exciting to know that maybe we’re just one step closer to figuring out the cause of dysautonomia, and in particular, long term down the road maybe even POTS.”Read more: https://go.nd.edu/ResearchThatMattersWWYFF
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:07Fighting to Protect the InnocentThrough collaboration with the National Immigrant Justice Center, Notre Dame law students are able to participate in an NIJC externship program allowing them to work on asylum cases of immigrants entering the United States.Law School alumnae Stephanie Torres and Christina Shakour took on the case of Maria and Ariel, immigrants from El Salvador seeking a safer life after receiving threats of violence from gangs. The team worked up to 30 hours a week on top of their course work to help the family in need. In total, they filed more than 300 pages of documentation to prove that the family qualified for asylum. After hours of preparation, Shakour and Torres presented the case before Immigration Court and obtained asylum for Maria and Ariel in the United States.*Because the well-being of Maria's daughters is still in jeopardy in El Salvador, and because gang retaliation could still occur in the U.S., actors were used in this What Would You Fight For video.*
- 2:01Fighting to Explore the MoonIn the 40 years since Notre Dame professor Clive Neal started studying the Moon and its wonders, many discoveries have been made, boundaries pushed and technology improved. But now he’s focused on making sure the next 40 years hold ingenuity, growth and adventure when it comes to the Moon. And he’s going to find the scholars, explorers and researchers who keep the Moon firmly in their sights.