Name: Yan Wu Hometown: Montgomery, NJ Lab: Dr. Kun Zhang Lab website: http://genome-tech.ucsd.edu/ZhangLab/ Hobbies: Rock climbing and finding new recipes! What do you study? One question scientists have had for a long time is how human brains got so much bigger and more connected than the brains of other animals. To answer this question, I study if there is […]
Archives for March 2020
Scientist Profile: Graziana Gatto
Name: Graziana Gatto Hometown: Ceraso, Italy Lab: Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory of Martyn Goulding Lab website: http://goulding.salk.edu/ Hobbies: Photography, Travel, Cooking, Soccer What do you study? We study how the neurons in the spinal cord function to make us walk, run, scratch, and how they make us feel hot, cold, touched and itchy. We remove or activate different types of neurons […]
Scientist Profile: Amanda Mar
Name: Amanda Mar Hometown: Vancouver, Washington Lab: Laboratory of Genetics under the direction of Rusty Gage Lab website: https://gage.salk.edu/ Hobbies: Arts & Crafts, Cooking, Hiking, Photography What do you study? I study autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its relation to macrocephaly to look at how the brain develops among individuals with autism. To look at this, we grow […]
Scientist Profile: Ahana Chakraborty
Name: Ahana Chakraborty Hometown: San Diego, California Lab: Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory of Shrek Chalasani Lab website: https://chalasani.salk.edu Hobbies: Drawing and painting, baking What do you study? I study autism spectrum disorders using the microscope nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, as a model organism. C. elegans is a tiny hermaphroditic worm (meaning that it can reproduce without a mate if […]
Scientist Profile: Thomas Kuret
Name: Thomas Kuret Hometown: Dublin, Ohio Lab: Laboratory of Genetics under the direction of Rusty Gage Lab website: https://gage.salk.edu/ Hobbies: Hiking, Cooking, and Teaching! What do you study? I study Autism Spectrum Disorder and how and how the brain grows. We know brains grow differently in ASD patients, but we don’t know how. We can grow mini brains […]
Scientist Profile: Molly Matty
Name: Molly Matty Hometown: Port Saint Joe, Florida Lab: Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory of Shrek Chalasani Lab website: https://chalasani.salk.edu Hobbies: Running, yoga, eating ice cream, traveling What do you study? My current research focuses on how the microbes in the gut can influence behavior. I do this using a small worm called C. elegans. I am interested in how signals […]
Scientist Profile: Brianne Palmer
Name: Brianne Palmer Hometown: Littleton, Colorado Lab: Lipson Lab, San Diego State University Lab website: http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/author/dlipson/ Hobbies: Hiking, camping, ukulele, baking What do you study? I study how soil microbes that live on the upper layers of the soil survive fire, particularly cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are super cool microbes that act like both plants and microbes […]
Scientist Profile: Hetika Vora
Name: Hetika Vora Hometown: Orange County, CA Lab: Neal Devaraj Lab, UC San Diego Lab website: https://www.devarajgroup.com/ Hobbies: Dancing, concerts, traveling What do you study? I am studying protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) in cancer. About one-third of human cancers have mutations in the Ras family of proteins, but there are currently no treatments that directly target these […]
Scientist Profile: Christa Trexler
Name: Christa Trexler Hometown: Phoenix, AZ Lab: Ju Chen Lab, UC San Diego Lab website: http://juchenlab.ucsd.edu/homepage.htm Hobbies: Hiking, camping, reading, cross-stitching What do you study? Our lab focuses on understanding the ways in which the heart develops and responds to disease. We are particularly interested in identifying specific proteins in the heart that are essential for these processes. […]
Scientist Profile: Michelle Franc Ragsac
Name: Michelle Franc Ragsac Hometown: San Mateo, CA Lab: Farley Laboratory Lab website: https://farleylab.com/ Hobbies: Eating new foods; Playing video games and board games with friends; Hanging out with my dog; Making artsy things What do you study? In my lab, I use bioinformatics tools and computational methods to study embryonic development in the model organism Ciona intestinalis, […]