Laura Odom, Anatomy PhD Candidate - LDN 2023

Laura Odom is a 2nd year Anatomy PhD candidate at the Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, PA. Originally from Alabama, she obtained a BS in Neuroscience at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2019. For the past year, she has been working in Dr. Patricia McLaughlin’s laboratory studying the biomarkers and hallmarks of multiple sclerosis (MS) in human patients; and a mouse model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Her research interests include the biochemical pathways involved in MS pathology that lead to classic symptoms such as weakness, fatigue, and sensory abnormalities; and psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression. Over the years, their lab has produced mounting evidence that low-dose naltrexone (LDN) ameliorates some or all of these symptoms in human patients and in the mouse EAE model. Moving forward, she plans to study the biochemical mechanisms underlying these pathologies and how naltrexone acts on these processes and related biomarkers.

LDN Reduced Anxiety in PwMS During the COVID-19 Pandemic