So it begins...

My name is Emma Vega Martinez. I am a biology major and I have always been interested in becoming a forensic pathologist. The broad idea that surrounds my career interest is the “why, and how did it happen”. That is why I have decided to do research with my mentor, Dr. Bradly Carter, in the Impact of environmental factors associated with mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders on early brain development-specifically relating to autism Epidemiology. I want to understand the why and the how of the causations of autism.

While Autism has been known for since 1911, there has been no known cure for it. All that has done has been research pertaining to what the chromosomes relating to autism code for, rather than why it happens. What we know is that it is a genetic mutation. While there has been controversy regarding programs such as Autism Speaks, an organization that has been known to speak and advocate for those who are within the Autism spectrum. Where the controversy lies in the exploitative practice within the organization. Many would argue that there is no need to find a cure for they are already a person who is perfect the way they are. In our research, we are not looking to find the cause and lead us closer to our goal which is to vocalize our findings that may be able to prevent the development of autism. This can be crucial because that way we can and would be able to get closer to understanding the why and the how of this disorder.

We expect to do experiments on fetal zebrafish starting from their earliest developments as far as when zebrafish mothers are expecting. From other scholarly research on potential chemicals known to cause change in either the phenotype or the genotype, we will then use different amounts of each to determine those changes. We observe behavior, such as social behavior that are linked to those within the autism spectrum. We can expect human made percent errors in our experimental values when measurements are off that could either exponentially or decline experimental values against our hypothesis.

While I am just starting in this investigation, what I have gathered from my future research team is that we have been slowly but surely getting closer to finding related substances to those that have been already used, and towards our goal. I would like for our conclusions to actually be there, often than not, experiments like these require a lot of patience and trial and errors.