Najva Akbari is an optical scientist investigating how the brain initiates complex social behaviors using novel microscopy approaches. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Lauren O'Connell’s lab, she is identifying the neural mechanism of olfactory caregiver recognition in neonatal vertebrate brains using multiphoton microscopy in social poison frog tadpoles.
Xiao Yang is a postdoctoral scholar working jointly in the laboratories of Professor Bianxiao Cui in the Department of Chemistry and Professor Sergiu P. Pașca in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Xiao received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University. With training in nanobioelectronics during her Ph.D. and a profound passion for extending its biomedical impact, Xiao aims to develop innovative nanobioelectronics in deciphering complex questions in human brain development and disorders for her postdoctoral studies.
Matt McCoy is a postdoctoral fellow advised by Prof. Andrew Fire at Stanford University School of Medicine. Matt earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Utah in 2011, and a PhD in Molecular Genetics and Genomics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2018. During his graduate studies, Matt used microRNA-mediated reprogramming of human skin cells to neurons to study the molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal cell fate acquisition.
Lei Cai is a postdoctoral fellow with Sarah Heilshorn in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He received PhD in Polymer Engineering from The University of Tennessee in August 2012. The goal of his research is to combine peptide and protein motifs with synthetic macromolecules to design novel injectable hydrogels that protect cells during transplantation and promote subsequent cell maintenance and functions, thereby enabling cell-based therapy of spinal cord injury.
The work of Dr. Lalchandani investigates the relationship between dopamine and GABA synthesis, vesicular packaging, and co-release in basal ganglia neurons in mice. The work involves a novel biosynthetic pathway for GABA in these cells and involves genetic dissection, electrophysiology, and optogenetics.
Kevin is postdoctoral researcher in Tom Clandinin’s lab, studying the neural basis of magnetic field detection in fruit flies. He has studied fruit flies and their nervous system for over a decade, and has worked on courtship behavior, feeding regulation, behavioral selection and neuromodulation, working in labs at Dartmouth, UC Berkeley, and the University of British Columbia. He received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014.