Hello, my name is Victor Huynh. I am a junior majoring in
Bioengineering with a concentration in Biomedical Signals and Systems. Zebrafish
have emerged over the past two decades as a powerful vertebrae model in many
areas of research such as in genetics and epilepsy. However, the cardiac
function of larvae exposed to different stress conditions is under-documented. Several
robust automatic heartbeat detection methods have been developed, but they require
high-cost camera and microscope setups and necessitate direct observation of
the larva’s heart. My project is to help develop and test an accessible automatic
heartbeat detection program for ventrally-positioned zebrafish larvae, for
which the heart is entirely obscured. The biggest challenge is developing the
program so that it does not require direct observation of the larva heart.
The semester before starting this project, I had took a
tour of the GMU Neural Engineering Lab. This tour left me fascinated by the complexity
of the experiments being conducted. After talking with the lab’s principal
investigator and my current mentor, Dr. Nathalia Peixoto, I believed that this
project would be an excellent way to expose myself to the challenges and
processes of Bioengineering research. In the long-term, this project will help
me determine whether a future career in research is right for me. After this
semester, I plan to expand upon this project to focus more on using the
developed program to study possible correlations between seizure events and changes
in cardiac function in larvae induced with seizures.
My typical week of research consists of coming to the GMU
Biomechanics lab and analyzing videos of epileptic zebrafish larvae for body
deformations corresponding to heartbeat. Further along in the project, I would
test and apply the program to estimate larva heart rate and determine
beat-to-beat intervals. One important lesson that I have learned from this
project is to communicate often with and be considerate of those that you work
with in order to avoid misunderstandings and to obtain the advice and assistance
needed to overcome tough obstacles and setbacks.
