Anagaa Nathan was admitted to UToledo through the Baccalaurate 2 MD Pathway Program (BACC2MD), an early medical school pathway where participants can interview as soon as their junior year with UToledo’s College of Medicine and Life Sciences.
“I knew in high school that I wanted to pursue a career in medicine and therefore applied to UToledo’s program in order to be best equipped with resources and support to work toward this goal of mine,” Nathan said. “Being in a more guided program that also offers the opportunity for students to apply to medical school a year early is a huge advantage that I knew I wanted to make the best of, and because of that, this program heavily influenced my choosing UToledo as my college.”
Anagaa Nathan, a junior studying neuroscience, has a keen interest in diseases of the brain and has been granted many opportunities to further her research through UToledo programs.
At first, Nathan majored in biology with a neuroscience concentration; however, in 2023, UToledo launched a new undergraduate neuroscience major, which she took notice of. Nathan had a passion for neuroscience and diseases of neurological systems, and changed her major as soon as she could.
“I remember learning about the brain for the first time in my senior year of high school and found myself deeply intrigued as to how this unseen organ in our body is responsible for so many high function tasks while also being the only organ in our body which defines us as an individual,” Nathan said. “However, the real driving force for my interest was seeing close family members suffer from cruel neurodegenerative diseases with no answers, treatments or cures. I have seen the toll this takes not only on the patient but also on the caregiver. This is my motivation to be part of the solution to learn, research and be an integral part of the mission to mitigate, treat and cure these debilitating diseases.”
Nathan showed a clear ambition to study diseases of the brain. This led her to discover UToledo’s partnership with the SENS Research Foundation (SRF) Summer Scholars Program, which offers undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct biomedical research to combat diseases of aging, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.
Nathan said she knew then that she wanted to take advantage of the program.
Nathan was admitted to UToledo through the Baccalaurate 2 MD Pathway Program (BACC2MD).
“I was lucky to have the opportunity to intern at SENS Research Foundation,” Nathan said. “When I was looking for summer research opportunities, I noticed that the mission of SENS is to ‘reimagine aging.’ I knew then that I wanted to be involved, which led me to have an amazing summer working there and learning so much.”
She also has been a part of Dr. Guofa Liu’s lab since 2022, whose research focuses on signal transduction cascades mediating neuronal guidance intracellularly, cytoskeletal modulation in neuronal guidance and axon outgrowth and regeneration.
“Anagaa Nathan is among the most passionate and enthusiastic students I have ever had,” Liu said. “Anagaa has been participating actively and has taken a great interest in my lab. She is a very dedicated student and demonstrates her ability to apply her previous knowledge in biology in the lab. She has received an Undergraduate Summer Research and Creative Activity Programs Grant from UToledo, which will support her in performing undergraduate summer research in my lab to study the role of microRNAs in axon guidance in the coming summer.”
Nathan is set to continue her journey to research neuropathology and medicine. She thanks UToledo for all the experiences she has accrued and will pursue in the future.
“My journey at UToledo has been one that has a lot of learning and fun,” Nathan said. “I would have to attribute the improvement of my learning to the amount of opportunities that are presented to us as students to take advantage of. I think having so many ways to be involved on and off campus is what has allowed me to truly take advantage of all that UToledo has to offer, and that has led me to build my resume, which allows me to be eligible or a stronger candidate for programs such as research and service.”
