Peer Research Ambassador Lily Zhong

Lily Zhong '21

Lily (she/her/hers) is a senior majoring in Physiology and Neurobiology and minoring in English. She is in the Honors Program and a member of the Special Program in Medicine. As an aspiring physician, Lily has a passion for building connections with others, especially through collaborative learning both in scientific fields and beyond. Being engaged in research at UConn has enabled Lily to pursue these interests, inspiring her to become a Peer Research Ambassador.

Since her freshman year, Lily has been a member of Dr. Alexander Jackson’s PNB lab, studying a novel neural circuit in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) of the mouse brain and investigating the role of this tachykininergic projection in stress and anxiety. After spending Summer 2018 at Storrs as an undergraduate research assistant, Lily earned an OUR Supply Award in Fall 2018 and the IBACS Research Grant in Spring 2019, allowing her to progress in her project analyzing the neural mechanisms underlying stress and anxiety-like behaviors. With the help of these awards and the foundation of knowledge built, Lily created a research poster and presented this work at the annual 2019 NEURON conference.

To continue this ongoing project in Dr. Jackson’s lab, Lily received the SURF Award for Summer 2019. In addition to performing various anatomical lab experiments on mice in order to characterize the novel neural circuit, she also worked on imaging, data analysis, helping to develop lab protocols, and keeping up to date on relevant literature. As a culmination of this dedicated research, Lily was selected as a University Scholar, allowing her to expand upon her previous project and delve further into the functional significance of the tachykininergic neural circuit, particularly focusing on its effects related to stress and anxiety. Lastly, though it was a difficult decision to leave lab for a semester, through a bit of planning ahead Lily was able to study abroad in Ireland for Spring 2020.

Overall, Lily is a strong advocate for engaging in undergraduate research because of the ability to improve critical skills of resilience, patience, and analytical thinking. If you have any questions about PNB research, getting started in a lab, going abroad, Pre-Med concerns, or anything else you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to reach out!

Student Research Blog posts by Lily: