University of Iowa graduate using past to drive her future

IOWA CITY — At age 12, on the cusp of becoming a teen with a cellphone and ambitions of an increasingly independent existence full of friends, freedom and PG-13 movies, Alex Petrucci one morning climbed into the back seat of her family vehicle and found herself transported to a new reality instead of going to school.

“I woke up on the floor of the garage and paramedics were taking me away,” Petrucci, a now 29-year-old University of Iowa doctoral student, told The Gazette about the morning she had her first seizure while in middle school in Austin, Texas.

“Imagine how horrifying that is to be on the cusp of feeling like you're an ‘adult’ and you can handle yourself to suddenly developing a chronic illness that makes everybody hover,” she said.

Tests revealed Petrucci had developed rolandic epilepsy — a benign pediatric disorder she managed for years with medicine before eventually outgrowing it. At least for a while, though, it hindered her.

“I couldn’t even use the bathroom alone, teachers would have another student follow me to the restroom,” she said, recalling being afraid to get her driver’s license until age 18. “So I was later than everybody else because I was scared of what would happen.”

Fast forward a decade, and what once confined Petrucci now compels her as a fall 2022 UI graduate with a newly-minted Ph.D. in neuroscience with plans to continue her epilepsy research as a postdoctoral student at the University of Utah.

She has “single-handedly advanced the use of several powerful techniques in our lab,” according to her mentor, Gordon Buchanan, a UI epilepsy professor and associate professor of neurology. “She is well on her way to making research advances to positively affect the lives of patients with epilepsy.”

Finding her path

Petrucci’s passion evolved out of her pursuit six years ago for connection in an unfamiliar state she’d never visited before applying to UI’s neuroscience program. Once in Iowa City, still unsure of what specifically she would study, Petrucci began volunteering with the local Epilepsy Foundation chapter and found herself at a conference where Buchanan was speaking.

He was presenting on “sudden unexpected death in epilepsy” — a subject that both fascinated and frightened her — and how UI researchers were studying the condition using animal models. As interested as Petrucci was, she needed prodding to jump in his path and introduce herself that day.

“The director of the Iowa chapter of the Epilepsy Foundation was standing with me and she was encouraging me to talk to Gordon,” Petrucci said. But as she made her way toward him, he got up to leave. “I realized that was my moment. I either had to let it pass or actually talk to him. So I stopped him as he was trying to leave and asked if I could do a rotation. And he said yes.”

That was fall 2016, and she started in his lab weeks later in January 2017 — a space she’s called her research and academic home for the nearly six years since.

Overcoming roadblocks

Exploring the topic that piqued her interest that day, Petrucci has spent years studying how, why and what to do to prevent people with epilepsy — who otherwise are healthy — from dying without other known causes, like an injury or drowning.

To date, she said, care providers and scientists can’t predict if or when epilepsy-related sudden death might occur — meaning they can’t prevent its occurrence — making ongoing research imperative.

“Over one-third of epilepsy patients will continue to experience seizures despite medical treatment,” Petrucci said. “This patient population is at greatest risk for SUDEP.”

In digging into the problem and risk factors, Petrucci has focused on the drop in brain activity that occurs after seizures, trying to understand why it happens. Using mouse models, she investigated ways to restore normal brain activity post-seizure.

“It’s a long way from going to humans,” Petrucci said. “But these are the first steps we need to take to build up to clinical application.”

Among the biggest challenges Petrucci faced in trying to unlock those neurological mysteries came in 2020 — when, like everyone else dealing with the pandemic, she experienced an unparalleled interruption -- which upended the mouse models she’d spent years developing.

“It was terrible for everybody, especially those of us that work with animals,” she said. “We really care for these animals, from bringing their parents together and taking care of them when they're babies to using them as adults. So not being able to be with the animals for I don't know how long, it was six or seven months, and then coming back,” she said, was tough.

But overcoming that obstacle added to the problem-solving skills she already was honing in answering more traditional scientific questions.

“I think one of the best things that has happened to me as a result of becoming a scientist is learning how to overcome obstacles and troubleshoot roadblocks, accept failures, use calmness and keep the mind open,” she said.

Petrucci was among more than 1,800 UI undergraduate, graduate and professional students who earned degrees this fall — celebrating at a December commencement.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com