Hello reader! My name is Victoria Montalvo, but I prefer to go by Vicky. I am a third year undergraduate student at FSU studying Cell and Molecular Neuroscience. I am on the pre-medical track, and have been involved in other CRE programs like UROP, Global Scholars, iGEM, and now IDEA Grants! I am very fortunate to have been able to have such experiences during my time here at FSU, and even more fortunate to have such amazing people at the CRE office support my efforts!
I am currently an undergraduate research assistant in the Solís Lab and the Riddle Lab at FSU. My IDEA Grant will be done under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Solís at the Solís Lab. Dr. Solís is an Assistant Professor here at FSU, and specializes in the heart and heart cell physiology, and teaches a class of his own. He was actually my UROP mentor back in my freshman year! He is skilled in the inner workings of the heart and an encouraging, supportive mentor, hence why I am doing my IDEA Grant with him.
My IDEA Grant project focuses on the pathology of a particular heart-based disease called Amyloidosis Transthyretin (TTR) Cardiomyopathy, or ATTR-CM for short. This disease affects 120,000+ individuals in the US with more being diagnosed every day. It begins when a globular protein (meaning a protein has a spherical/globular shape) called TTR begins to obtain specific mutation points that compromise its structure. This can happen either due to genetic pre-disposition, or age-related causes. When its structure is too compromised, it dissociates into its subsequent parts, called monomers. These monomers then begin aggregating into fibrils and result in amyloidogenesis—a process where normal proteins disassemble or misfold and aggregate into beta rich sheets known as beta amyloids—hence the name amyloidosis in ATTR-CM. These beta amyloids can then deposit everywhere in the body including nerves and the heart. I will be studying specifically their deposition and interactions with cardiac cells.
My work regarding ATTR this summer will be as follows: I will create the TTR fibrils from healthy TTR proteins and test their interactions with heart cells, also known as cardiomyocytes. I will see how the fibrils interact with the peripheral tissue of the cells, and whether or not they are internalized by the heart cells. I will then classify the reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by the heart cells. These are oxygen-containing molecules that indicate or cause oxidative stress to the cell by their temporal appearances, types, effects, and any other features unique to ROS and the specific ROS molecule.
As of our current progress; we have recently organized our labs fridge and found our protein of interest, TTR! I will begin prepping the protein for its respective protocols. We have also recently ordered Thioflavin T, a stain protein that will help us verify whether or not we were able to obtain TTR fibrils from the TTR protein. However, we were only able to order a Thioflavin of 75% purification, so I will need to develop a purification protocol to make sure we get the highest level of purified Thioflavin as possible to lower our risk of falsities in our experiment.
Here at FSU, I currently work as a Study Skills Tutor at FSU’s Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) in the WJB Building. In the future, I hope to get into medical school either for MD or MD/PhD to study neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Parkinson’s Disease to hopefully help formulate cures to these diseases. I hope that with the skills I am able to develop through my IDEA Grant project, as well as my other commitments on campus, will provide me with the skillset to help treat people with these diseases, and develop effective and accessible cures.
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