Featured Student: Alex Jones

Alex Jones is a senior in the health sciences pre-professional program, but he had no research experience when, as a freshman, he started working in the lab of Wei Zheng, professor and head of the School of Health Sciences. The lab's research investigates how manganese affects the body and how it can produce many of the same symptoms and neurological problems as Parkinson's disease.

Jones' aspect of the project involves looking at how manganese is stored and released in bone tissue. He's done work to determine the rate at which the element accumulates in the bone and the rate at which it's released back into the body & important because it provides insight into how long manganese can remain in the body before having a toxic effect on the brain.

"Alex is a great example of a student knowing nothing about research, but who, through hands-on learning, will become an expert in a particular field," Zheng says. "In fact, his work has earned him a co-authorship on one of our recently accepted papers." Read More...