Jeremy Cohen, PhD – Senior Research Scientist

jeremy_cohen@med.unc.edu

Jian Zhong (Jay) Guo, PhD – Principal Scientist

jayzhong@email.unc.edu

Reagan Bullins Shugg

rbullins@unc.edu
Twitter

Reagan graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Computational and Systems Neuroscience and a minor in psychology (December 2020). She worked in the English Lab studying spike sorting validation using ground-truth neural recordings and contributed to Flatiron’s SpikeForest project.

In her graduate studies, she is working on one project leveraging optogenetic perturbations to manipulate neural trajectories and drive behavior.

In a second project, she is characterizing transformations performed by the basilar pontine nuclei, a major bottleneck in the motor circuit.

Yuechen Qiu

ycqiu@email.unc.edu
Co-advised with Greg Scherrer

Yuechen earned her B.Eng and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Duke University. She previously worked at Gladstone Institutes (UCSF) studying circuit mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease.

In graduate school, she aims to leverage cortical motor circuits to understand opioid neuromodulation.

Jaesung Yoo

jsyoo61@unc.edu
Twitter
Website
Co-advised with Kanaka Rajan

Jaesung studied Electrical Engineering and Brain & Cognitive Sciences at Korea University. He worked at Seoul National University Hospital and MIT using artificial neural networks (ANNs) for neuroscience and medical AI.

His graduate work uses ANNs to model how neural population activity generates behavior.

Anjali Nelatoor

nelatoor@email.unc.edu

Anjali is a junior at UNC Chapel Hill double majoring in Neuroscience and Community & Global Public Health. Her interests lie at the intersection of neuroscience, research, and community-based care.

She is particularly interested in neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, with a focus on early diagnosis, treatment strategies, and underlying neurobiology.

She plans to pursue a career in medicine integrating clinical care and research to improve outcomes in neurodevelopmental health.

Megan Gerlach

mgerlach@unc.edu

Lab Position: Undergraduate Assistant Researcher (Fall 2023 – Summer 2025)

Additional Role: Research Technician, Dr. Gianmarco Pinton Lab (Summer 2025 – Summer 2026)

Current Position: PhD Neuroscience Student, Emory University (August 2026)

Research Interests:

• Neural circuitry and psychiatric conditions
• Impact of drugs of abuse on disease progression
• Development of therapeutic strategies

Corey Freeman

Lab Position: Undergraduate Assistant Researcher (Fall 2023 – Summer 2025)

Additional Role: Research Technician, Hantman Lab (Summer 2025 – Summer 2026)

Current Position: PhD Neuroscience Student, Columbia University (August 2026)

Caitlin Lewis

Lab Position: Undergraduate Assistant Researcher (Fall 2022 – Spring 2024)

Current Position: PhD Student at Duke University (Dr. John Pearson)

Work:

• Computer Science and Statistics at UNC
• Calcium imaging tools (mesmerize-core)
• Scientific plotting library (fastplotlib)
• Behavior classification software (animal-soup)

Nikita Elkin

Lab Position: Undergraduate Assistant Researcher (Spring 2024 – Spring 2025)

Aditi Shah

aditishah0428@gmail.com

Lab Position: Undergraduate Research Assistant (Spring 2023 – Spring 2024)

Dhatri Kakarla

dhatrik2024@gmail.com

Lab Position: Undergraduate Research Assistant (Spring 2022 – Fall 2022)