Annee Nguyen

My research interests merge my experiences with neurodegenerative disease/neuroscience and cancer biology & pharmacology. I plan to delve further into the realm of cancer neuroscience. From 2014 to 2018, I researched peripheral neuropathy as a secondary complication of diabetes, HIV, Alzheimer's disease, and other neuropathologies such as prion disease with Drs. Nigel Calcutt and Christina Sigurdson of UC San Diego's Department of Pathology. I obtained my Master's of Science in Biology, during which I investigated sexual dimorphism of peripheral neuropathic indices in a novel prion disease mouse model. From 2019-2020, I focused on veterinary sciences in the field of equine genetics and equine neuroaxonal dystrophy (eNAD) with Dr. Carrie Finno and her collaborators at UC Davis's Department of Population Health & Reproduction. In an equine NAD model and a murine ataxia with vitamin E deficiency (AVED) model, I investigated the preventative effects of various formulations of oral vitamin E through behavioral phenotyping, NextGen sequencing of murine dorsal root ganglia, and fluorescent calcium imaging. Since 2020 to present, I currently work with Dr. Rory Goodwin at Duke University Medical Center's Department of Neurosurgery and his collaborators in Dr. Donald McDonnell's Laboratory (Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology) to (1) develop animal models of spine metastases and (2) investigate molecular and genetic factors that contribute to the formation and progression of spine metastases. In our collaboration with Dr. Christopher Donnelly from the Department of Anesthesiology, we seek to explore the role of pain in cancer progression and treatment and its complications.