Mckennah Thompson, an undergraduate student at Montana State University, presented her research at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Conference on Neural Engineering in San Diego last November. The conference is highly selective, inviting only about 10% of applicants to give talks. Out of approximately 500 applicants, Thompson was one of 50 chosen to deliver a platform presentation.
Thompson is set to graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and is also enrolled in the university’s Honors College. She received funding for her travel through MSU’s Undergraduate Scholars Program.
Reflecting on her decision to attend Montana State University, Thompson said, “You can get experience really easily while getting paid, plus you are also getting credit for working in a lab.”
Her paper, titled “Microembossing Hydrogel Meso-Circuits for Patterning Dissociated Neurons Promotes Ensemble Formation,” demonstrated that organizing living neurons more precisely in a petri dish increases synaptic communication between them. A synapse is where neurons transmit information through electrical and chemical signals.
“It was such a unique opportunity for me to go do as an undergrad from Montana State,” Thompson said.
She described presenting to an audience of about 200 experts as initially intimidating: “All these people I was presenting to, they live in this field. They eat, sleep and breathe neuro-engineering.” She added, “Here I was, presenting to all these experts.”
Thompson began her research during her sophomore year under Anja Kunze, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at MSU. Kunze commented on the work: “This is very novel work. Mckennah worked hard to get the patterning technology to work and record the communication patterns from the brain cell cultures.”
For her project, Thompson used 3D printing technology with hydrogels called agarose to create microscopic structures that guided neuron growth into specific patterns. After two weeks of culturing neurons on these structures, she applied a fluorescent dye sensitive to calcium levels. When exposed to ultraviolet light, neurons containing the dye blinked green as calcium entered them—allowing researchers to visually track when neurons fired together.
“When groups of neurons fire at the same time, they create coactive events, and these coactive events are representative of how our brain is functioning,” Thompson explained.
She noted that this research could have future applications in personalized medicine by allowing drug responses to be tested directly on neural cultures before prescribing medication: “When somebody has an issue and they need a drug medication for it – and there may be 20 different types of drugs out there that they could take – instead of [them taking] all 20 over three weeks of trials to see which is the best, they could insert a little bit of that drug into this device and kind of see how it reacts.”
Thompson reported positive feedback from her presentation: “It was really great,” she said. “I really liked it. I came in and I felt very prepared.”
In addition to her academic pursuits, Thompson participates in intramural soccer and Delta Gamma sorority activities at MSU; she also founded a club for biomedical engineering majors. After graduation she plans a gap year before possibly pursuing dentistry.
“It was a no-brainer to do undergraduate research,” she said. “It was three birds, one stone.”
