Print This Post
Megan Hager
Name:
Megan Hager
Job Title:
Toxicology PhD Student / Graduate Research Assistant
Place of work / study:
Colorado State University
Area of Research:
Neurodegeneration and the role of inflammatory cascades that may lead to disease pathogenesis.
How is your work funded:
NIH grants obtained by my PI, Ron Tjalkens.
Tell us a little about yourself:
My passion for neuroscience began when I read my first nonfiction book on the subject in the 8th grade. I scoured thrift stores for discarded textbooks and spent my free time engulfed in my own internal universe. During my bachelor’s degree, I began working for Dr. Ron Tjalkens. I quickly recognized that neurotoxicology was my ideal field of research– it enabled me to investigate how toxic insults change the brain on a macro and micro level. Now, I am in my first year of my PhD program with Dr. Tjalkens, and I have begun to ask original scientific questions and pursue my own interests. I would like to understand how toxins that are known to cause parkinsonian symptoms might affect areas that are implicated in cognitive decline, such as the hippocampus. I hope to combine in vivo and in vitro studies to elucidate a full picture of what occurs from mechanisms to pathology.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself:
I became a Muay Thai kickboxer after completing my career as a division 1 athlete in college.
Why did you choose to work in dementia:
Much scientific understanding of the brain stems from injuries and associated deficits. From a young age, I have been interested in cognition, and dementia is, broadly speaking, the loss of this ability. From my perspective, losing cognitive ability and autonomy are some of the most terrifying disease outcomes in the modern world. The prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases will continue to increase unless we can discover a way to halt disease progression.
What single piece of of advice would you give to an early career researcher?
As an early career researcher, I unable to speak on this as extensively as my senior colleagues and mentors. Given that, the only advice I can provide is to find mentors who you can trust. I am incredibly thankful to be learning from Adam and Savannah who are incredibly rigorous with their science and care so deeply about generating only the most scientifically sound, impactful, and honest data as possible. I am confident that their challenging questions and standards of perfection will lead me towards a fruitful career both during and after their mentorship.
What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
Right now, I am reading “how we live is how we die” by Pema Chodron. I would recommend it to anybody curious about the buddhist perspective on dying. It is a deep dive into all the ways that we live on the cusp between life and death, enduring countless deaths within our lifetimes, but that does not need to be a source of suffering.
Favourite film of all time?
Nacho Libre.
Favourite ways to unplug and unwind?
I write spoken word poetry, paint, read, lift, and kickbox, among other things.
Can we find you on social media?
@megan-hager.bsky.social
Find Megan on LinkedIn
