Felise Bressler Receives URSA Mini-Grant to Conduct Research at Weill-Cornell Medical College

Felise Bressler, a senior University Scholar, received an URSA Travel Mini-Grant for Summer 2024. Felise was accepted into the Weill-Cornell Medicine ACCESS (Advancing Cornell Career Experiences for Science Students) Summer Internship program, where she conducted research in Dr. Kristen Pleil’s lab, under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Hamor. Her project was titled “The Role of the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Thalamus to the Nucleus Accumbens Circuit in the Behavioral Response to Rewarding and Aversive Odorant Stimuli” which investigated the role of a specific neural pathway in rewarding behaviors in mice. The Pleil lab hopes to extend this research and apply it to substance use and addiction. Felise presented her findings at the Leadership Alliance National Symposium in Hartford, Connecticut. Due to her outstanding presentation, she was then selected as the oral presenter for the Weill-Cornell Summer Internship Closing Ceremony. Felise would like to thank the Pleil Lab and the ACCESS coordinators, Dr. Yazmin Carrasco and Dr. Roxana Mesias, for their support this summer.

At Baylor, Felise hopes to continue this line of work through Dr. Jacques Nguyen’s lab which similarly studies the neurobiology of addiction. With her new skills, Felise is optimizing stereotaxic surgery for Wistar rats to bring new neuroscience approaches to Baylor. She hopes to earn her Ph.D. in neuroscience to continue to research neural circuitry in various psychiatric and developmental disorders. Felise credits the McNair Scholars program with helping her prepare for graduate school and build a competitive application. Her deep passion for mental health not only drives her research, but also her free time as evidenced by leading Active Minds as President and being a student representative on various health and wellness committees around campus. Further, as a Provost’s Scholar, she hopes to increase the accessibility of undergraduate research at Baylor. Felise encourages other students to not be intimidated by research and dive into research – both at Baylor and externally.