Helping innocent victims tell their story

Brandeis Stories

Helping innocent victims tell their story

By Susan Piland
September 22, 2025

When Chloé Bakayoko '26 interviewed for her internship in the Brain Trauma Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the lab's principal investigator warned her the job would be extremely hands-on - an "apprenticeship," not an "observationship."

This was exactly what Bakayoko wanted. Even better, she says, the research she's helping with is "perfectly aligned" with her goals.

A neuroscience and biology double-major (with a minor in psychology), Bakayoko set her sights on becoming a doctor when she was a 9-year-old growing up in Paris. After Brandeis, she intends to go to medical school, then practice medicine in the neurology field, perhaps with a pediatrics component.

The MGH Brain Trauma Lab focuses on childhood brain injuries. The researchers hope to learn how to determine - with a high degree of precision - the extent of a child's brain injury and the kind of trauma that caused it, with the goal of minimizing brain-tissue damage and other post-traumatic effects, like epilepsy.

"Many brain injuries in children are the result of abuse," Bakayoko says. "In most of these cases, the child isn't able to voice exactly what happened, and the adult doesn't disclose exactly what happened. So the lab is seeking to better understand brain trauma to better help these children when they come into an ICU."

So far, Bakayoko has been able to closely observe neurosurgeries conducted on swine, the large-animal model used in the lab's research. She records information during the surgeries. She helps with the anesthesia given to the swine and cleans surgical instruments. She's worked on histology projects that analyze brain damage and learned the protocols that ensure the animals receive ethical treatment.

"The lab," she says, "gives us the opportunity to really see the entirety of the process," an invaluable apprenticeship for a young neuroscientist.

Since her sophomore year, Bakayoko has worked as a teaching assistant in Brandeis' General Chemistry Lab, a job that has sharpened her time-management and communication abilities. "These are valuable skills at the Brain Trauma Lab," she says, "because it is pretty intense - it's a big lab, a big project. They look for people who are efficient and know how to communicate."

The internship, which began in summer 2025, will continue throughout Bakayoko's senior year, during which she'll work in the MGH lab 10 hours a week. She plans to take the MCAT exam in late January, apply to and - fingers crossed - be accepted into a U.S. medical school, take a gap year, then start her medical studies in fall 2027.

Studying and working far from her closest family members - her mother lives in Paris; her father and younger siblings live outside Geneva - Bakayoko is grateful for the close circle of friends she's made at Brandeis. "They are all very, very supportive, and all have very, very high goals for themselves, too," she says. "They encourage me to stay focused and help me overcome my doubts. It's very good to have people who believe in you, and push you, and say, 'I am sure you will become a great doctor someday.'"