For Kadine Hamilton ’08, a summer fellowship plus “a bit of luck” created the perfect senior honors project and the opportunity to present her work at the Experimental Biology 2008 conference in San Diego.  After conference coordinators granted her approval to present at the meeting, Hamilton says, she was also honored with a Minority Travel Fellowship from the American Physiological Society.

Hamilton’s interests in biology, her major, and chemistry, her minor, led her to study pain therapy with the help of Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Ana Estevez.  She also works with collaborators Professor of Chemistry Larry French and fellow student researcher Andrew Chapp ’08. 

“The use of [traditional analgesics] has been linked to many side effects, including hyperalgesia, dependence and addiction,” says Hamilton. “We are studying receptors in the pain pathway in an effort to develop novel analgesics with fewer side effects.”

Hamilton says she got “so deeply engrossed in the experiment during the summer” that her University Fellowship turned into her honors project.  Hamilton says her recent work has even inspired her to consider a different career path.

“My interest in medical research has increased significantly; I am torn between going to medical school and going to graduate school for my Ph.D.,” she says. “I want to learn about unfamiliar topics in addition to getting a sense of what it is like to do research for a living.”

Hamilton, of the Bronx, NY, is a graduate of the Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies.  She is a member of Chi Omega sorority and Beta Beta Beta, the national biology honorary society and is a peer advisor and office assistant in career services.