Rising senior Andrew Flatley, recently completed a 10-week research internship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Established in 1995, the Summer Internship Program provides biomedical and public health research experiences to college juniors and seniors. The goal of program is to encourage students to pursue careers in science, medicine and public health.
Flatley, an anthropology major who uses many of his free electives to take science courses, worked in the laboratory of Roger Reeves, professor of physiology, studying the cognitive function in Down syndrome. Using mouse models, the Reeves lab is focused on understanding the combinations of genes in one’s DNA that might lead to the predisposition for the Down syndrome effect to be more or less severe and why development works differently in someone who has Down syndrome compared to someone that does not.
In addition to his summer research experience, Flatley works in the Laboratory For Understanding Neurodevelopment (F.U.N. Lab) at Notre Dame during the academic year studying Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) under the guidance of Juhi Kaboski and Joshua Diehl. The lab’s work focuses on understanding and improving social communication for individuals with ASD.
“I have a strong interest in developmental disabilities research,” Flatley said. “The program at Johns Hopkins provided me with the ideal opportunity to explore this interest.”
Although he is still deciding on his plans, Flatley will either attend medical school or a pursue Ph.D. program in the sciences after graduation.
Originally published by at science.nd.edu on August 11, 2015.