VINE Student Profiles
Erica Chavez
Program Entry Year: 2024
I'm a first-year PhD student in Professor Tiffany Schmidt's lab. My hometown is Gurnee, Illinois, and I received my BA in Neuroscience from Northwestern University. My research interests lie in neural circuitry and sensory systems, for their importance in determining how we interact with our environment. Specifically, my focus is on studying the regulation of physiology and behavior via photoreception of light at the level of the retina and its downstream circuits. My research project will broadly focus on studying how retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) projecting to the basal forebrain (BF) influence BF mediated behaviors. With prior training in fluorescent microscopy and sex steroid hormone receptor characterization in the retina, I'm also interested in exploring the interplay between sex steroid hormones and the visual system. Additionally, I hope to investigate if there are sex differences within these circuits and the behaviors they direct.
Dom Pinke
Program Entry Year: 2024
My primary interest is the research of imprinted, innate behavioral patterns. How is it possible that mice born in a lab are able to recognize and react to a predator coming from above, which they have never seen before? How do these circuits develop in the brain, and how do these ancient, hardwired functions influence memory formation? I seek answers to these questions through 2-photon microscopy and immersive virtual environments, focusing on place and grid cells in the hippocampus.
Kyungho Seong
Lab: Bozza
Program Entry Year: 2023
I am a second-year PhD student in the lab of Professor Tom Bozza. Originally from Seoul, South Korea, I completed my BS in Biological Sciences at Seoul National University. With a longstanding interest in neuroscience and computational approaches, my research focuses on elucidating the genetic basis of diverse neuronal lineages during neurogenesis in the olfactory system and investigating mechanisms underlying olfactory gene choice. My work leverages single-cell transcriptomics and mouse genetics.