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For Marquis Scholar Meghan Sweeney ’05 (Yardley, Pa.), an independent research project on the link between Alzheimer’s disease and folic acid hits close to home.
A neuroscience major, Sweeney is working under the supervision of Jamila Bookwala, assistant professor of psychology, to examine various studies suggesting that people with chronically low levels of folic acid, or folate, have a higher chance of suffering from the disease.
Sweeney, a member of the women’s soccer team, is especially interested in the subject because a number of her family members, including her grandmother and three of her mother’s sisters, suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.
Through her research, Sweeney also seeks to learn about alternative approaches to medicine such as orthomolecular medicine and homeopathy. Orthomolecular medicine seeks to prevent and treat disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances that are natural to it. Homeopathy uses minute doses of a drug that in massive amounts produces symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease itself.
Sweeney is also collaborating with Bookwala on an EXCEL Scholars research project exploring the impact of marital events on the overall functioning of physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses among men aged over 50. In Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend. Lafayette is a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the 180 students who participate in EXCEL each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences.
“Meghan is currently developing an extensive literature database on the links among these variables,” Bookwala explains. “In the very near future, Meghan will collect pilot data on the effects of marital events on cortisol (a hormone that maintains blood pressure), mood, and memory in a small group of older adult volunteers. She also will collect the same type of data on college students who are involved in romantic relationships.”
Bookwala received a grant this year from the Lindback Foundation to conduct research on the links among marital quality, depression, and ethnicity in older Americans. She also was among 15 scholars selected from a national pool of applicants to attend a prestigious Summer Research Training Institute funded by the National Institute on Aging July 20-30 at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. Other students involved in her aging research have given presentations at annual meetings of the American Psychological Association and the Gerontological Society of America.
Bookwala says that Sweeney has shown tremendous initiative and dedication to the project. If her findings merit it, the student may develop a related honors thesis.
“This is the first level of the research project,” she notes. “But, if it proves to be as interesting as I hope it will, I would like to explore it further.”
Sweeney, who says her research of Alzheimer’s disease has a slight comparison to Bookwala’s research for the EXCEL Scholars project, enjoys working alongside the professor.
“She’s been really helpful,” Sweeney says. “She’s very excited about her work and has taken a genuine interest in my project. My topic will hopefully complement some of her previous work.”
“She has been a great asset to my research,” Bookwala says.
After graduation, Sweeney hopes to study osteopathy in medical school.
She is a graduate of Pennsbury High School.
Independent study courses are among several major opportunities at Lafayette that make the College a national leader in undergraduate research. Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Over the past five years, more than 130 Lafayette students have presented results from research with faculty mentors, or under their guidance, at the conference.