Hannah Goudsward, a fifth-year PhD candidate at Penn State College of Medicine, is the Molecular Pharmacology Highlighted Trainee Author for the November 2024 issue.
The MolPharm article that earned her the selection as a Highlighted Trainee Author is titled “Ghrelin Modulates Voltage-Gated Ca2+ Channels through Voltage-Dependent and Voltage-Independent Pathways in Rat Gastric Vagal Afferent Neurons” and is available at https://doi.org/10.1124/molpharm.124.000957.
After finishing her graduate program, Goudsward plans on completing a post-doctoral position where she can further develop my electrophysiology skills to study how GPCRs modulate neuronal activity in health and disease. She is interested in studying dysregulated modulation of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels in models of neurotrauma or neurodegeneration but is also always open to new research avenues.
Goudsward feels that due to the heterogeneous nature of the vagal afferent cell bodies, the understanding of the precise biophysical regulation of vagal sensory neurons in health and disease remains incomplete. She hopes her research will help expand our understanding of the cellular mechanisms that mediate vago-vagal reflexes to help guide targeted pharmacological treatments for disorders of visceral homeostasis.