Johan Martinez-Fuentes (Russek Lab) is a PhD student in the Department of Biology. He received his BA from Pomona College in Molecular Biology in 2013 and his MS in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona in 2018. Before starting graduate school, Johan became interested in neurophotonics as a research technician in Dr. Jason Newbern’s lab at Arizona State University where he investigated the role of neuronal Ras-ERK/MAPK signaling in brain development and function. This experience inspired him to pursue ways to observe and perturb the activities of intracellular molecular networks in living neurons to understand how these systems work in health and disease. For his research, he plans to use mouse genetics and molecular biosensors to study the real-time dynamics of signaling and transcription factor networks to better understand their role in neurological disorders including autism and epilepsy. Transcriptomic approaches will also drive open discovery in these conditions and supplement his efforts to understand the spatial complexity of the brain at the level of individual cells. He expects to complete his PhD by 2024.
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