Hello everyone! My name is Emmanuel (Gus) Scaria and I am a fourth year student attending The Ohio State University. I’m currently enrolled in the honors college and am pursuing a degree in Neuroscience and a minor in child abuse and neglect. I am also a member of the Eminence Fellows class of 2024, a cohort here at the university.
I grew up in Broadview Heights, Ohio, a suburb around thirty minutes away from Cleveland. I attended North Royalton High School before enrolling here at Ohio State. I chose Ohio State for two main reasons: the sheer amount of opportunities a big university had to offer and because of the neuroscience program.
I’ve always been interested in both biology and technology and so I felt as though a degree specialized in computational neuroscience will allow me to study at the focal point of these interests. However, as I approach the midpoint of my third year of college, I’ve decided that behavioral neuroscience more aptly fulfills my interests. This switch was fueled over the course of the last two years as I worked in Dr. Barrientos’ Lab researching the behavioral and biochemical basis for Alzheimer’s and Age related cognitive deficits. Working in her lab, I had the privilege of working with Adeno-Associated Viruses, and after taking the course ‘All about AAVs’, I find myself increasingly interested in gene therapy. In the future, I specifically want to delve into research advancing gene therapy based therapeutic solutions to neurological issues because in my research I find that gene therapy has an extremely high ceiling in terms of therapeutic benefit for the patient. This focus also piques my interest because of the largely untapped potential of gene therapies for neurological conditions.
During my time at Ohio State, I’ve gotten involved in several organizations on Campus. Freshman year, I helped found Project PEER, an organization dedicated to bringing academic enhancements to incarcerated individuals with the intent of reducing recidivism and providing equal access to education for all. This past year, I became a part of ServUs, a startup social enterprise dedicated to bringing volunteer opportunities to college students based on their interests. I find that these two organizations have fueled my interest in entrepreneurship and creating new and innovative solutions to the world’s problems.
In my free time, I enjoy playing tennis, skateboarding, and watching Netflix. I’m also an avid car enthusiast and have an instagram page (carspotcbus) where I document cool cars that I see around Columbus and facts associated with them.