Amy Zwierzchowski-Zarate, a neuroscientist from Dallas, Texas, shows us how being a scientist and being a mom don't have to be mutually exclusive. For this STEMinist, being a statistic can have a positive side to it.
And you might be familiar with the term Amyloid Beta, that brain protein that may signal that a person has Alzheimer’s disease. In Amy’s lab at University of Texas Southwestern (UT Southwestern), she has pioneered the idea that another brain protein, Tau, may be responsible for neurodegenerative diseases as well.
No stranger to being the first to do things in various areas of her life, Amy positively paves the way for herself and others, in and out of her lab. I thoroughly enjoyed my chat with this inspiring and fun Scientista; check it out!
Some definitions (...you know I like those definitions!):
Tau - a protein that keeps things structured inside of cells
Amyloid Beta - a protein that mis-folds (incorrectly folds), and floats outside of cells
Prion - a type of infectious protein that can trigger normal proteins in the brain to fold abnormally (think: … Mad Cow Disease)
Ligand - an ion or molecule that donates electrons to form a bond
Antibody - a protein that binds to foreign bodies, like bacteria and viruses, in order to destroy them.
Amy’s Instagram:
@modernsciencemom
https://www.instagram.com/modernsciencemom/
Amy's website:
modernsciencemom.com
~ Here, among other things, you can see a photo of Amy in outreach action with a (plastic) brain and budding young scientists.
~ A reference article from one of Amy’s blog posts:
https://news.microsoft.com/features/why-do-girls-lose-interest-in-stem-new-research-has-some-answers-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/
STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Amy on Facebook:
@modernsciencemom
Find my science-related art here:
http://www.betsyjudge.com
And various other things here:
https://www.instagram.com/basjudge/
https://www.instagram.com/artfulscientista/
