Hunter P
- Research Program Mentor
MD/PhD candidate at University of Washington
Expertise
Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration, Medicine, Philosophy of Mind
Bio
After growing up in North Carolina, I spent my undergraduate career studying neuroscience through the lenses of both biology and philosophy, concurrently working in a neuroimaging laboratory to better understand how we process speech. These days I spend most of my time studying ALS as part of my MD/PhD training. My work centers on understanding why a key protein departs neuronal nuclei and aggregates in the cytoplasm during ALS, with a focus on developing a means of therapeutically reversing this process. Outside of the lab, I enjoy archery and photography as well as all manner of board, video, and tabletop roleplaying games.Project ideas
Toxic Conformation: A Survey of Protein Aggregation in Neurological Disease
From Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease to ALS and Huntington's disease, aberrant protein aggregation is a well-known feature of many neurodegenerative processes. In this project, students will explore why protein aggregates are so common in neurological disease and how superficially similar structures can lead to such diverse pathologies.
One Brain, Many Minds: The Split-Brain Phenomenon and its Implications for Consciousness
It's easy to take for granted that within each of our brains lies the machinery to power precisely one unified mind, but the behavior of split-brain patients strongly calls this assumption into question. While these patients would seem unremarkable in a crowd, specialized tasks can elicit responses from one cerebral hemisphere that outright contradict the responses of the other, causing patients to behave as if they are simultaneously controlled by two (or more?) distinct minds. In this project, students will explore the split-brain phenomenon in addition to related neurological conditions like blindsight and hemispheric neglect, coming to their own conclusions about the unity of consciousness in health and disease.