Congratulations to Grant Thomas, of the Oregon Episcopal School. Grant recently presented the results of his study entitled “Using Drosophila melanogaster to Assess the Pathogenic Characteristics of Familial Neuropathy Target Esterase Mutations” at the Aardvark Science Expo.  This project was mentored by Occupational Health Sciences’  Doris Kretzschmar and Lizzy Sunderhaus.

In this study Grant used Drosophila to investigate how mutations in the Neuropathy Target Esterase protein that cause spastic paraplegia, ataxia, or blindness in patients interfere with the function of this protein.  Grant won 1st place in the Medicine & Health Sciences category and will now advance to the Intel Northwest Science Expo. We congratulate Grant on his efforts and success, and wish him well in his future science investigations.

Submitted by Doris Kretzschmar, Ph.D. Learn more about Dr. Kretzschmar’s Lab here at Occupational Health Sciences.