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by Zach Brockhouse

Deep within the Pickus Center for Biomedical Research, Jayden Lovely (Medical Biology, ’26) points to a cluttered desk surrounded by vial-filled shelves. “A lot of my research is done right here,” she said. Set against the trees on �Ӱ���Ƶ’s campus in Biddeford, the research building houses some of the University’s most innovative biomedical research. It is here that Lovely, a rising sophomore, is conducting research with tangible implications for Alzheimer’s disease.

In another room, she uses a machine called a cryostat to slice a sample and stain it to highlight the focus of her research, the CD2AP protein. She examines the results in �Ӱ���Ƶ’s new Olympus Slide Viewer. “I look for the differences and record them,” she said. “If all goes as planned, I could be contributing directly to a major breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.”

Lovely is pursuing the pre-physician assistant (PA) track within �Ӱ���Ƶ’s medical biology bachelor’s degree program, which equips students with the skills necessary to pursue graduate physician assistant studies after graduation. For her, the state’s only PA program suits her desire to follow many interests while not being held to the same timeline of a medical degree. She found her niche as a member of the Pre-Physician’s Assistant Club, but felt she still wanted more.

When a member of the club mentioned that there were research opportunities available to students, Lovely perked up. It was exactly what she had been looking for. She quickly sent off an email stating her interest and was paired with Madison Meuth, a doctoral student from the University of Maine in the laboratory of Benjamin Harrison, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and nutrition at �Ӱ���Ƶ, who studies how pain signals are received by the body.

Lovely quickly found herself immersed in Harrison’s lab working on a real-world research project with real-world applications.

A Budding Researcher Learns the Ropes

Lovely’s initial lab work wasn’t even related to Alzheimer’s. It was about pain. 

In 2022, Harrison received $1.8 million in funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to explore non-opioid treatments for chronic pain at the cellular level. He is using the five-year grant to study how to reduce the electrical firings in nociceptors, which are neurons that transmit pain signals in response to painful injuries. His focus is searching for non-narcotic ways to block how pain is processed in our bodies. 

Harrison and his team have discovered that nociceptors contain a protein called “CELF4,” an RNA binding protein they theorize inhibits the production of “pro-nociceptive,” or pro-pain-sensing cellular components. In essence, they are trying to trick the proteins to limit pain signals. His research focuses on delivering CELF4 into pain neurons, where the protein will limit the synthesis of ion channels, receptors, and other molecules that sensitize them. 

“The work Dr. Harrison had done was astounding — and intimidating. At first, I wasn’t sure of myself. I’d attended lab meetings before, but hearing the lingo and seeing the tools used in this environment seemed completely different,” Lovely said.

“I’m on a journey here at �Ӱ���Ƶ, and it’s all part of the process,” she added. “There is so much that goes i