• Royce Fellowship
Mara Renz
Smith

Concentration 

Neuroscience

Award Year 

2011
Investigating the Role of Proteins Associated with Neurodegenerative Diseases

Faculty Sponsor: Anne Hart

Mara studied Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a childhood motor neuron disease that affects major muscle groups required for walking, eating, and breathing. SMA affects approximately 1 in 6,000 children and there is no cure. Mara studied this disease in the animal C. elegans, a type of nematode useful for genetic research. She then created transgenic animals and studied their behavior to understand more about the disease process of SMA.

Mara is a research assistant at the Trauma Center at JRI where she researches the effects of Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART) for kids with childhood trauma using a behavioral coding system.