Forensic Biology major spending summer doing toxicology research

Lynette Vana is planning a career as a forensic scientist working in law enforcement.  This summer she is gaining invaluable experience working as a summer research intern at WIL Research Laboratories here in the City of Ashland studying the effects of the plant derivative scopolamine, which is used as an anti-nausea drug, but also abused as a recreational drug.  Lynette writes that she is "being trained exactly the same way as the research biologists who carry out studies at WIL".  After learning how to work with rats as research animals, administering drugs and assessing their behavior, she will continue her project in the research laboratories on the Ashland campus in collaboration with Biology Department faculty.

Lynette writes that her work at WIL Laboratories directly relates to her studies in forensic biology, since "in forensics, human tissue may have to be analyzed for the presence of drugs in cases such as murder investigations".