Samal presents stroke research
In Bibek Samal’s junior year of high school, he competed in the Houston Regional Brain Bee, a neuroscience competition at Rice. Five years later, Samal is now a senior at Rice presenting his research on subarachnoid hemorrhages to the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
Majoring in neuroscience, Samal said he was naturally drawn to the subject for its focus on the intricacies of the brain.
“We don’t know a lot about the brain,” Samal, a Baker College senior, said. “There’s just so much you can do with neuroscience … and I don’t think you can do that with a lot of other fields.”
Having grown up in Sugar Land, Texas, Samal began working in a research lab at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston in high school. For the past three years, Samal’s lab work has focused on decreasing blood clotting caused by subarachnoid hemorrhage — a stroke that occurs when a blood vessel ruptures on the brain’s surface.
“A lot of what we do right now is mice work; we test therapeutics within mice and see how that decreases platelet aggregation and thus [risk of] stroke,” Samal said.
Recognizing the capacity for new therapies and medicine, Samal hopes his research can be used to improve patient treatment.
“I think there’s a lot of potential for growth and room to create these new medications or therapies that might one day help people,” Samal said.
Samal presented his research at the annual meeting for the CNS hosted in Houston, Texas Sept. 28 - Oct. 2. Attendees included the former prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk.
According to Samal, presenting to an audience of high-profile figures and distinguished surgeons was an educational moment.
“I think it was a gratifying experience to be able to present to people that are levels above me and also to learn from them too, in the same session that I was speaking [at],” Samal said.
Samal said that Rice’s strength is in its resources for research.
“Excellence in research is something that I really like about Rice,” Samal said. “I don’t think I would have gotten that at another school.”
Beyond his research endeavors, Samal said his favorite memories at Rice have come from spontaneous hangouts with his friends.
“The other day we decided to just randomly go to Chinatown to eat at [midnight],” Samal said. “I feel like those are some of the memories you make that you don’t realize you’re making, but later on down the road, you’re going to realize it was a core memory from college.”
After graduation, Samal plans on taking a gap year to conduct more research, before heading to medical school and eventually pursuing neurosurgery. Samal said he hopes to implement his work in hospitals and continue his cerebrovascular research.
“I would love to collaborate with my lab in some capacity during medical school and beyond,” Samal said. “Obviously, that’s kind of a lofty goal, but that’s where I’d want to see my research end up.”
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