Beckman Undergrad Fellow Guowei Zhang

As a Beckman Institute Undergraduate Fellow,  Guowei Zhang spent the summer working on finding a safe and audiology-friendly anesthesia.  Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) recording is a crucial technique for measuring hearing sensitivity. However, in animal ABRs require anesthesia, which can compromise both survival rates and result accuracy. 

His work focused on testing 5 different anesthesia used in MRIs, ABRs, and animal surgery. He found that Dexmedetomidine is safer than the more traditional xylazine without compromising ABR results like with isofluorane.