Gwenaëlle Thomas
| Gwenaëlle Thomas | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🎓 Alma mater | University of Maryland, Baltimore County |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 🌐 Website | www |
Gwenaëlle Thomas is a first generation college student and a Neurobiology Ph.D. candidate at Duke University. As an Afrolatina woman, Thomas strives to promote diversity and increase science communication so it is more accessible. While at Duke she has been involved in many organizations and has been a teacher and a mentor for many individuals. She works in multiple labs where she researches neurodevelopment disorders by studying brain signals with the goal of finding more effective treatments with reduced side effects for those affected by these disorders.[1]
Education[edit]
In 2012, she attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where she graduated Cum Laude and received her bachelor's degree in molecular biology and biochemistry as well as her minor in psychology.[2] While attending UMBC Thomas earned the Meyerhoff Scholar, a scholarship for underrepresented minorities who are in STEM.[1]
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After she graduated she went to Duke for graduate school in 2016. At Duke, she received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2018. That same year, Thomas became a Duke Scholar in Molecular Medicine which gave her the opportunity to complete a 9-month program where she gained clinical experience.[3] As a DSMM Scholar she won the Borden Scholar in 2019 for her translational research proposal.[4] Additionally, she received the Women's Weekend Scholar in 2020.[2] She is presently a Neurobiology PhD candidate at Duke.[1]
Inclusion and communication[edit]
Involvement[edit]
Thomas considers amplifying marginalized voices and increasing scientific communication to be a critical goal in her work. In 2017 she became the president of the Duke Bouchet Society which supports black graduate students and she held that position for two years.[2] While at Duke she also joined SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science).[2] Additionally, she was also involved in WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) as well as oSTEM (out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).[1] Furthermore, she aids marginalized students and researchers in achieving their professional goals in STEM through her position as Graduate School Mentorship Initiate Director for Outreach and Digital Marketing for Científico Latino.[1]
Teaching and mentoring[edit]
Through teaching and mentoring Thomas has been able to support marginalized individuals and ensure they have a safe and inclusive environment to work towards their goals and achievements.[2] She is currently working on getting her Certificate in College Teaching at Duke University.[2] Furthermore, she is a coach at BOOST (Building Opportunities and Overtures in Science and Technology) where she works with and does science experiments with middle schoolers at Durham who are interested in STEM and medicine.[1][2] In the Fall of 2019, she was able to educate marginalized students about biomedical research by teaching a Duke University House Course.[2]
Furthermore, while at Duke she has been a supervisor to four undergraduate students, two students visiting over the summer, and a graduate student attending the University.[2] In 2020, she was nominated for and won the Dean's Award for Excellence and Mentoring.[2] In an interview, she explains how she values listening as a mentor and how she aims to help her meentees achieve their goals by providing them with a safe and welcoming space.[2] Those who nominated her described her passion for mentoring and how she strives to increase diversity in science.[2] Additionally, they reported her as a role model for many and discussed how she excels in teaching others about inclusion and diversity and in supporting marginalized individuals.[2]
Science communication[edit]
Thomas stresses the importance of communication in science and states how the abundance of differences between western medicine and her own culture drove her to work on increasing accurate science available to marginalized individuals.[5] She discusses the lack of awareness about mental illness as well as the stigma surrounding treatments for mental disorders in her community and stresses the importance of communication for marginalized individuals so they can understand and identify mental illnesses they may have as well as have the courage to be able to seek help.[5][1] To increase access to information, Thomas created a YouTube channel in 2020 called getSTEM to spread accurate scientific information and to amplify voices of marginalized individuals.[6]
Research[edit]
Thomas is a neuropsychopharmacologist focusing on human psychiatric conditions. She studies many different disorders including anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia.[7] She conducts research in multiple labs including the Laboratory for Psychiatric Neuroengineering (LPNE) which is ran by Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD.[8] At the LPNE Thomas and others work to study brain circuits and their relationship to mental illness.[8] She is also a researcher in Marc G. Caron's lab where she along with others studies the way neurotransmitters and hormones work and regulate systems in the body.[9]
Thomas aims to discover new and more effective treatments for neurological disorders that have reduced side effects and can improve the quality of life for those who struggle with these disorders.[1] Her target is to create a noninvase precision treatment that can help many different psychiatric disorders.[5] Using mice as models, she focuses on the cortical-striatal circuit as well as the mechanisms of dopamine in the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex to better understand the effects of these drugs.[7] Through electrophysiology, pharmacology, and behavior techniques, Thomas further explores how the brain responds to these medications by recording the single neuron action potentials and local field potentials in the brain.[7][1][5]
Selected publications[edit]
Vu, MT; David, LK; Thomas, GE; Vagwala, M; Burrus, C; Gallager, NM; Wang, J; Blount, C; Hughes DN; Adamson, E; Ndubuizu, N; Kim, H; Soderling, S; Mague, SD; Adcock, RA; Dzirasa, K (2019). "Brain-wide electrical spatiotemporal dynamics encode reward anticipation". bioRVix.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Gwenaëlle Thomas". Black in Neuro. Retrieved 2021-04-19.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 "2020 Dean's Awards: Gwenaëlle Thomas | Duke Graduate School". gradschool.duke.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-19.
- ↑ "Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute". www.ctsi.duke.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ↑ "Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute". ctsi.duke.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Towfiq, Hannah (2020-08-13). "The motivations of a Neuropsychopharmacologist". Sciwheel Blog. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
- ↑ "Ph.D. Student Launches YouTube Channel to Talk Science, Amplify Marginalized Voices | Duke Graduate School". gradschool.duke.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Gwenaelle Thomas | Duke Neurobiology". www.neuro.duke.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Laboratory for Psychiatric Neuroengineering". Laboratory for Psychiatric Neuroengineering. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ↑ "Marc G. Caron". Department of Cell Biology. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
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