Sarah Iannone ’25 studies fruit flies for a summer research project focused on two genes associated with seizures in a lab at the College of the Holy Cross on July 28, 2022 in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Ivins/Holy Cross)
For animals to respond properly to environmental changes, such as temperature fluctuations, their nervous systems must be regulating correctly. It’s a biological function that is vital to survival. The question of why some cannot continue managing these necessary bodily functions, possibly leading to the onset of high fever-induced febrile seizures, is one that Sarah Iannone ’25 has spent her summer researching with Alexis Hill, assistant professor of biology. Iannone is one of dozens of College of the Holy Cross students who participated in the College’s Charles S. Weiss Summer Research Program. Her research project builds off previous student research undertaken in Hill’s lab and whose findings were published in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics in 2019.