For the first time, a Carle Illinois College of Medicine student has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Illinois Space Grant Consortium Fellowship (ISGC). Maria Bederson will use the $10 thousand NASA-funded fellowship to advance her interdisciplinary research coupling aerospace medicine with neurosurgery and neuroscience.
The ISGC Graduate Fellowship program supports outstanding students pursuing a graduate degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines that align with NASA’s mission. Each year, up to ten graduate students at the consortium’s affiliate universities are granted fellowships. “Historically, this fellowship has been awarded to graduate students in traditional aerospace engineering or affiliated fields,” Bederson said. “I feel incredibly lucky to have been selected as the first medical student at CI MED to receive this grant and to be recognized for my potential contributions to human health in space exploration.”
Bederson plans to use the fellowship to support her research into the effects of spaceflight on the human central nervous system and neurological health. “The unique set of conditions impacting human health during spaceflight demand an entirely new interdisciplinary approach to research and innovation,” Bederson said. “There is a surge in research aiming to measure the effects of micro- and zero-gravity environments on a wide range of medical topics, including the brain. Deep space exploration also provides an opportunity to develop remote diagnostic systems and automated robotic-assisted medical procedures. Exploring new technologies for human health in space may also have novel clinical applications on Earth.”
Bederson is fully immersing herself in the field. She was recently invited to present her original research exploring changes in the brain’s perivascular space in microgravity environments at the Aerospace Medical Association’s Annual Scientific Meeting. “The perivascular space is an emerging and exciting area of study thought to represent the glymphatic system, responsible for clearance of metabolic waste products in the brain. Emerging evidence supports its role in a wide range of pathologies including stroke, traumatic brain injury, dementia, and others,” Bederson explained. The work is a collaboration with Carle Foundation Hospital Neurosurgeon Dr. Suguna Pappu and University of Colorado Emergency Medicine physician, Dr. Arian Anderson, who is a clinical researcher at NASA in the Exploration Medical Capabilities unit. Bederson’s latest research, also under Dr. Pappu’s direction, explores using lower-body negative-pressure devices to regulate intracranial pressure in cosmonauts. This work also has potential application to neurosurgical patients on Earth.
In addition to an interest in pursuing research that supports NASA’s mission, the ISGC Fellowship recognizes academic excellence. Bederson holds bachelor’s degrees in molecular engineering and chemistry from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in biophysics and physiology from Georgetown University. After she completes her medical training, Bederson dreams of someday becoming a neurosurgeon and working for NASA as a clinical researcher providing expertise in neurosurgery.
The Illinois Space Grant Consortium is based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and includes 12 affiliate organizations, most of which are universities within Illinois.