Current Neuroscience Students

ClimerJason Climer joined GPN in 2010 and is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Biology and Biotechnology and a Minor in Computer Science.  He is a recipient of the Kahn Award and the Charles O. Thomson Scholarship, and was awarded the Provosts Award for Most Outstanding Biology MQP (Senior Thesis).  He has broad interests in neuroscience, but is most interested in neural circuits and plasticity.  In addition he is a Boy Scout Eagle Scout.
Gupta-Kishan2Kishan Gupta is a 2003 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley where he earned his BA in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. In 2005, he entered the MD-PhD program at the University of California, Los Angeles where he is concurrently admitted while completing his PhD at Boston University. His primary research interest includes modeling the spatial and working memory correlates of the entorhinal cortex.
James_Nicholas_U833263141Nicholas James joined GPN in 2010 and has a B.S. in psychology from Fairfield University.  He also has training in in-vitro whole cell patch clamping and data analysis at the University of Connecticut.  Nick is in the computational neuroscience specialization at GPN to pursue his interests in compartmental modeling of neurons and neural networks as well as in in vivo models of cognition
kamhiFranne Kamhi graduated Oberlin College in 2008 with a B.A. with high honors in Neuroscience and a minor in Psychology.  She is a member of James Traniello’s lab, and her current research focuses on the neurochemistry and neuroanatomy underlying ant social behavior.  Growing up in both Memphis, TN, and Eugene, OR, Franne has an affinity for country music, hiking, and traveling.

Publications: Snyder, J.S., Choe, J.S., Clifford, M.A., Jeurling, S.I., Hurley, P., Brown, A., Kamhi, J.F., and Cameron, H.A. (2009). Adult-born neurons are more numerous, faster maturing and more involved in behavior in rats than in mice. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(46): 14484-14495.   Snyder, J.S., Glover, L.R., Sanzone, K.M., Kamhi, J.F., and Cameron, H.A. (2009). The effects of exercise and stress on the survival and maturation of adult-generated granule cells. Hippocampus, 19(10): 898-906.
Amy-LinAmy Lin is a 2003 graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles where she earned her B.S. in Neuroscience.  Her primary research interest is the effects of posttranslational modifications of proteins involved in brain function and neurodegenerative disorders.  Amy hails from California, loves to travel and is a devoted foodie.

Publications: Mookerjee, S., Papanikolaou, T., Guyenet, S.J., Sampath, V., Lin, A., Vitelli, C., DeGiacomo, F., Sopher, B.L., Chen, S.F., La Spada, A.R., Ellerby, L.M.  2009.  Posttranslational modification of ataxin-7 at lysine-257 prevents autophagy-mediated turnover of an N-terminal caspase-7 cleavage fragment.  J. Neurosci. 29(48): 15134-44.  Zhang, D., Hou, Q., Wang, M., Lin, A., Jarzylo, L., Navis, A., Raissi, A., Liu, F., Man, H.  2009.  Na K ATPase regulates AMPA receptor abundance through ubiquitination-proteasome-mediated proteolysis.  J.Neurosci. 29(14): 4498-4511 Young, J.E., Garden, G.A., Martinez, R.A., Tanaka, F., Sandoval, C.M., Smith, A.C., Sopher, B.L., Lin, A., Fischbeck, K.H., Ellerby, L.M., Morrison, R.S., Taylor, J.P., La Spada, A.R.  2009. Polyglutamine-Expanded Androgen Receptor Truncation Fragments Activate a Bax-Dependent Apoptotic Cascade Mediated by DP5/Hrk.  J. Neurosci. 29(7): 1987-1997.   Oberlander, J.G., Lin, A.W., Man, H.Y., Erskine, M.S.  2009.  AMPA receptors in the medial amygdala are critical for establishing a neuroendocrine memory in the female rat.  Eur. J. Neurosci. 29: 146-160.    Young, J.E., Gouw, L., Propp, S., Sopher, B.L., Taylor, J., Lin, A., Hermel, E., Logvinova, A., Chen, S.F., Chen, S., Bredesen, D. E., Truant, R., Ptacek, L.J., Fu, Y-H., La Spada, A.R., Ellerby, L.M. 2007.  Proteolytic cleavage of ataxin-7 by caspase-7 modulates cellular toxicity and transcriptional dysregulation.  J. Biol. Chem. 282(41): 30150-30160.  Oliveira, J.M.A., Jekabsons, M.B., Chen, S., Lin, A., Rego, A.C., Gonçalves, J., Ellerby, L.M., Nicholls, D.G.  2007.  Mitochondrial dysfunction in Huntington’s disease: the bioenergetics of isolated and in-situ mitochondria from transgenic mice.  J. Neurochem. 101(1):241?249.      Baer, L.A., Villarreal, J., Lin, A., Conway, G.C., Ronca, A.E.  2003. Labor contractions induce c-fos expression in newborn rat brain. Developmental Psychobiology 43(3): 246 abstract 13.      Lin, A., Carpenter, E.M.  2003.  Hoxa10 and Hoxd10 coordinately regulate lumbar motor neuron patterning.  J. Neurobiol. 56(4): 328-337.
SamSam McKenzie is a 2007 graduate of McGill University in Montreal where he earned his B.Sc. in Neuroscience.  Currently working in Howard Eichenbaum’s lab, his primary research interest is how memories become associated in hippocampal networks.  Outside of the lab, Sam also enjoys screen printing and the fusion of arts and science.

Publications: S.M. Cox, C. Benkelfat, A. Dagher, J.S. Delaney, F. Durand, S.A.McKenzie, T. Kolivakis, K.F. Casey and M. Leyton, Striatal dopamine responses to intranasal cocaine self-administration in humans, Biol.Psychiatry 65 (2009), pp. 846–850
Monaghan_Caitlin_U376141081Caitlin Monaghan joined GPN in 2010 and received her B.S. and M.S. from the University of Oregon.  Her research interests are focused in the area of learning and memory.  She has previous research experience in in vivo electrophysiology in awake, behaving rodents.  She is most interested in unraveling the mystery behind cognitive processes of learning and memory.
CarolineCaroline Moore-Kochlacs studied Physics (BS ’05) and Biomedical Informatics (MS ’05) at Stanford University. After college, Caroline worked for an internet start-up for several years before returning to science. Caroline is a member of Nancy Kopell’s group at Boston University where she is looking at beta rhythms in Parkinson’s and spike sorting; she is still determining which brain dynamics she will make the focus of her graduate career.

Publications: Hill, E.S*; Moore-Kochlacs, C.*; Vasireddi, S. K.; Sejnowski, T.J.; Frost, W.N.; Validation of Independent Component Analysis (ICA) for rapid spike sorting of optical recording data, Journal of Neurophysiology, in press2. Brown, G.D., Yamada, S.; Nakashima, M.; Moore-Kochlacs, C,; Sejnowski, T. J.; Independent Component Analysis of Optical Recordings from Tritonia Swimming Neurons, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California at San Diego Technical Report, INC-08-001,2008  Karp P, Ouzounis C, Moore-Kochlacs C, Goldovsky L, Kaipa P, Ahren D, Tsoka S, Darzentas N, Kunin V, Lopez-Bigas N. (2005) Expansion of the BioCyc Collection of Pathway/Genome Databases to 160 Genomes.Nucleic Acids Res., 33(19):6083-6089.
Randall-NewmarkRandall Newmark graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior.  He worked in brain imaging PET lab at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York examining the metabolic effects of psychiatric disease and traumatic brain injury.  His primary research interest remains in using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to characterize the neurobiological underpinnings of episodic and working memory and the structural and functional neuroanatomical changes during normal aging.  He was born in Temple, TX and his interests include cheering the Knicks, coffee ice cream, and the genius of Serge Gainsbourg.

Publications: Newmark RE, Schon K, Ross RS, Young M, & Stern CE (2010).  Disambiguation during Working Memory: A High-Resolution fMRI study of the Human Medial Temporal Lobe.  Manuscript to be submitted.  Schon K, Newmark RE, Ross RS, Quiroz YT, & Stern CE (2010).  Working memory load effects in hippocampal subfields: a high-resolution fMRI study.  Manuscript to be submitted.  3.  Pallanti S, Haznedar MM, Hollander E, LiCalzi EM, Bernardi S, Newmark R, & Buchsbaum MS (2010).  Basal ganglia activity in pathological gamgling: a flurodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography study.  Neuropsychobiology, 62(2): 132-8.  4.  Buchsbaum, MS, Haznedar M, Newmark RE, Chu KW, Dusi N, Entis JJ, Goldstein KE, Goodman CR, Gupta A, Hazlett E, Iannuzzi J, Torosjan Y, Zhang J, & Wolkin A (2009).  FDG-PET and MRI imaging of the effects of sertindole and haloperidol in the prefrontal lobe in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 114(1-3): 161-71.
Payen_Marie-Pierre_U423796721-150x150Marie-Pierre Payen joined GPN in 2010 and is a MARC U-STAR graduate of Queens College with a double major in neuroscience and psychology.  She was selected to participate in the 2007-2008 Research Initiative for Minority Students (RIMS) funded by the QCC-NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program. In addition she is the recipient of the Quantitative Science award that was given at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students.  She is passionate about helping others in her community to achieve their goals and has interests in neurodegenerative diseases and in in vivo models of brain disorders
susan_ruizSusan Ruiz graduated from MIT in 2003 with an S.B. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (with concentrations in Systems Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience) and a minor in Psychology. Her research focuses on functional and structural neuroimaging in alcoholism, looking particularly at gender differences in gray and white matter macrostructure and in memory and emotional functioning.
salzDaniel Salz graduated from SUNY Buffalo with a B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience.  He works in the Lab of Cognitive Neurobiology under the direction of Howard Eichenbaum.  He is interested in decoding how the circuitry of the brain processes and stores information in hippocampus and associated cortical areas through the use of electrophysiological recordings in awake and behaving rats.  His greatest passion outside of science is dancing.
Shackett_Melanie_U923972801-150x150Melanie Shackett joined GPN in 2010 after graduating from the University of Connecticut with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and the University of Hartford, with a M.S. in Neuroscience.  Her research interests include the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disorders, specifically Alzheimer’s disease, which represent a high, unmet therapeutic need around the world. Understanding the molecular changes that occur during neurodegeneration opens the door for potential therapeutic targets, as well as deeper understanding of how these diseases are related. Melanie comes to GPN after an extensive research experience at Biogen Idec.
Chris-Shay2Chris Shay received his BS in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University in 2004.  He now works in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Hasselmo conducting whole-cell patch clamp experiments.  Chris’ research interests focus on cellular properties of the parahippocampal region, specifically the entorhinal cortex.  He is especially interested in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease observed within these regions and plans to pursue a career investigating this subject. Out of the lab, Chris’ hobbies include music, sports, and travelling.
GPN_estephenEmily Stephen received her Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Neuroscience (Computational Track) from Brown University in 2007.      She started at GPN in 2009, and currently works in the BU Speech Lab on questions related to brain-computer interfaces for speech.  She is primarily interested in computational encoding and decoding in cortex.
JonoJono Szalay graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2004 with a B.S. in Biopsychology and a minor in Philosophy.  He is currently a research assistant in the Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, and his research involves preclinical models of learning and memory in drug abuse. As his research suggests, Jono is against the use of drugs but still likes to party. He can also grow a mustache at the drop of a hat.

Publications: Szalay, J.J.; Morin, N.D; Kantak, K.M. Involvement of the hippocampus and amygdala in cocaine cue extinction learning in rats. (Submitted, 2010).
Torene_Spencer_U527811061-150x150Spencer Torene joined GPN in 2010 after graduating from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Computer Science. As an undergraduate, he interned at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, helping generate infrared computermodels of military vehicles for automatic target recognition systems.  After six years of working for non-profit, private, and public companies, he is back in school. His long term goal is to help humans become artificially intelligent through non-biological means. Along with Nick he is a member of the computational neuroscience specialization at GPN.
Trengrove_Chelsea_U159711242-150x150 Chelsea Trengrove joined GPN in 2010 and is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned her B.A. in Biochemistry and Psychology, along with a Chemistry minor and a certificate in Neuroscience.  Her primary research interest is in the molecular and cell biology of neurodegenerative diseases and, more specifically, in the glial modulation and inflammatory processes of these diseases.  Born and raised in Washington DC, Chelsea is an avid runner, continues to play soccer, and loves to snowboard. She also plays the cello and is a practicing “foodie.”
Yanushefski_Lisa_U315218281-150x150Lisa Yanushefski joined GPN in 2010 after receiving a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University.  She has excelled during her training in engineering but we are thankful that a valuable experience in a neuroscience course brought her to our door.  Her interests are in neurodegeneration from both the perspectives of animal models as well as human clinical studies.