Doctoral student teaches children about muscular dystrophy, WVII reports

WVII (Channel 7) reported on a recent talk by a University of Maine doctoral student at the Challenger Learning Center in Bangor. Elisabeth Kilroy, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow who is pursuing a doctorate in biomedical science, taught students about how muscles work and discussed muscular dystrophy, a rare genetic disease that affects both her brother and dad, WVII reported. Kilroy is working to identify the muscular dystrophy gene and show that exercising can benefit people with the disease by experimenting with zebrafish, the report states. “I just hope maybe today was a defining moment,” Kilroy said, referring to the children’s experience. “One said they wanted to be a biologist, so maybe she’ll go on and be a biologist.”