High School Students Explore Frontiers of Neuroscience

Nineteen New York City high school students traded in their summer tee-shirts and shorts for CUMC lab coats this summer. They spent five weeks conducting research in our faculty’s laboratories as part of BRAINYAC (Brain Research Apprenticeships in New York at Columbia), a research program at the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

Funded by the Pinkerton Foundation, BRAINYAC helps students broaden their scientific knowledge, hone research skills, and learn about possible biomedical careers.

“When all the research comes together, we can see how we’re a team,” said Idniel Paula, a 16-year-old from Washington Heights who spent the summer working under the supervision of Edmund Griffin, MD, PhD, in the laboratory of Eric Kandel, MD, Nobel laureate, University Professor, and co-director of the Zuckerman Institute.

Read more and watch a video about the program on the Columbia News website.