Seeing the impacts of stroke directly within my family has made every patient’s story that much more real and important for me to empathize with.
- Name
- Molly
- Class of
- 2025
- Neuroscience
When Molly Zhao was a freshman, Elisabeth Marsh from the School of Medicine visited her Cognitive Neuroscience class to discuss her lab’s stroke research, particularly in supporting patients’ recovery. Inspired by Marsh’s insights on the complex nature of stroke and recovery, Zhao decided to join her lab her sophomore year. Zhao’s research became personal a few weeks later, however, when her grandfather suffered a stroke.
“Just like my grandpa, each patient in the clinic presents a story beyond the textbook symptoms on paper or a prior medical history,” she says.
Now a senior neuroscience and economics double major, Zhao’s research at the Bayview Stroke Intervention Clinic looks at how social determinants of health affect patients’ follow-up rates and post-stroke recovery. Her project uses a large database of stroke patients to identify social factors that may influence stroke follow-up rates; by identifying common variables, the project hopes to ultimately improve stroke recovery.
In the clinic, Zhao also is working on a stroke research project focusing on evaluating Scrambler Therapy, a neurostimulation device, as a treatment for post-stroke and neuropathic pain. FDA-approved Scrambler Therapy utilizes electrical stimulation to intercept nerve endings, effectively “scrambling” pain signals from affected areas with non-painful signals from adjacent areas. Through administering and observing the relieving effects in clinic patients, Zhao aims to analyze the effects of the therapy and their use in statistically significantly reducing the perception of chronic pain.
Zhao says her previous internships at Biohaven working on clinical trials and on the biotechnology health care equity research at Evercore ISI have given her further insight into the complex interplay between innovation, accessibility, and quality in patient care. Her long-term goal is to help patients individually and fuel innovation for patient populations on larger scales.
