About me

Hello and welcome to my website! I am a third year Ph.D. student in the neuroscience program at Brandeis University working in the labs of Drs. Don Katz and Shantanu Jadhav. My project is focused on identifying and characterizing the circuit involved in gustatory responses in the hippocampus.

Prior to Brandeis, I studied circuit dysfunction in mouse models of schizophrenia in the lab of Dr. Alberto Cruz-Martin at Boston University. Our research focused on the effects of complement component 4 (C4) overexpression in layer 2/3 of the pre-frontal cortex. We found that overexpression of C4 in mouse prefrontal cortex neurons leads to perturbations in dendritic spine development and hypoconnectivity and that microglia-mediated synaptic engulfment is enhanced with increased expression of C4. Our most recent work has shed light on a non-canonical pathway for C4-medeiated loss of dendritic spines through interactions with endosomal trafficking protein SNX27, demonstrating that in disease states proteins may take on atypical pathologies.

During y time in the Cruz-Martin lab I also used miniscopes to investigate the role of VIP expressing interneurons in the anterior cingulate cortex of mice. Calcium imaging combined with genetic mouse models allows for tracking of very specific cell populations across days. Although we found that VIP interneurons in the ACC responded to p[articular stimuli, these resopnses were not stable across days or sessions.

I am very passionate about data analysis and building pipelines to support research projects. I recently completed the three week computation neuroscience course at Neuromatch Academy where I was able to build a stronger foundation of mathematical and computation approaches to analysis that I will defiunitely be building upon in my coursework and research during my Ph.D.