I research in Dr. Cope's applied physiology lab. Our past project was to discover previously unidentified proteins present in muscle spindles through immunostaining of tissue. I was responsible for cryosectioning and staining tissue for various potassium- and sodium-gated channels in rat muscle. The ultimate goal of this project was to add tot the model of how receptor potentials generated by spindles are transduced into action potentials. We discovered the presence of three new channels that may play a role in action potential generation.In a separate project, we looked at how the muscle spindle anatomy might play a role in the animal's physiology, specifically when mutated with cancer genes and treated with a chemotherapy drug (Oxaliplatin). Paul Nardelli of our lab discovered that rats treated with the drug exhibited an inability to sustain firing during a ramp-hold-release stretch. We then compared the concentration of different channels in control rats and rats that had been treated chronically with the drug. We found a potassium-gated channel was severely downregulated in the rats that had been treated with the drug, which may provide insight into side effects of the drug.

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