Chronic exposure to alcohol during pregnancy is related to impaired fetal growth, malformations, spontaneous abortion and developmental defects. Zinc is required for the optimal functioning of several enzymes and transcription factors that are critically important in the processes that underlie growth and development. The goal of my project is to assess how zinc supplementation can benefit pregnant mothers and thier baies before and after birth. The subject of my research are adult rat and guinea pig models of human fetus and pregnant mothers. I will be working in the laboratory to assess the prescence of zinc in chronically exposed adult rats, pre-term and term guinea pig pups. Laboratory techniquest that will be incorporated include ELISA and protein assay tests. Short term outcome is to become familiar with basic laboratory skills and incorporate these skills in understanding more about translational research. The final outcome will be to determine the extent to which zinc deficiency may be occuring in animal models and use this model to understand zinc deficiency in humans. Another goal will be to determine how much zinc supplementation is neccessary for uptimal growth of chronic alcohol exposed fetus. Sustainance of the research will be maintained by the Gauthier laboratory through further evaluation of zinc levels in live human and animal cells to understand better the role of zinc.

Update:

My project took place between the months of May and August 2006. I was involved in translational research evaluating the level of zinc present in the epithelial lining fluid of adult alcoholics and guinea pig pup samples. The decreased level of zinc present shows an indication that supplementation of fetus and pre-mature infants exposed to alcohol may increase survival.

My overal goalls for this project are to develop independence in a research project, understand more about the challenges of laboratory research, and get a first hand experience in the NICU working with infants with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I also hope to learn more about neonatology as this is a field I am interested in pursuing.

Update:

My research was a preliminary project conducted in the Brown Gauthier laboratory in Emory University. My work will be expanded upon by the laboratory to confirm my results and extrapolate the need for zinc supplementation to increase survival of alchol exposed guinea pig pups.

I anticipate to be surprised by results of experiments. With laboratory based research it is important to be careful when runnig experiments so that results may be as accurate as possible. Mistakes in methods may produced skewed results. I plan to address this challenge by being patient and being willing to re-run experiments to be certain that my data is correct.

Accomplishments

Since my last report, I have successfully finished my research project and created a poster presentation summary of my findings.

Challenges - Future

One challenge I have been addressing is summarizing my research results in a poster presentation format. I have been working closely with my mentor and receiving feedback concerning the best ways to present my results.

resources

Resources that I am using to achieve my objectives are the data from my labwork, articles which support my results and formatting advice from my mentor.

Resource Needs:

Resources needed are mainly the rat and guinea pig epithelial lining fluid samples which are readily available in the laboratory. Also, zinc indicators have been ordered by the Gauthier lab for this projuect.

Last update: August 31, 2006

Graduation Requirements Progress Chart
If you complete the requirements outlined below, you will graduate as a LOCUS fellow.

A indicates the item has been completed.

Completed	When	What	On-line
	Year 1: Beginning of Semester 2	New Project Report	Submit Report
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 1	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 2	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 3: Beginning of third year	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 4: August of fourth year	2-3 page final summary of project that includes a reflective evaluation of the project process	N/A
	Ongoing	Participate in program evaluation (written and/or focus group)	View Options
	By the end of fourth year	Select poster, presentation, paper, creative option or your own idea	View Options

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