The Neuroscience Curriculum is proud to announce that 5 graduate students were recently awarded external funding from a variety of sponsors in support of their research. Please join us in congratulating them on this achievement.
Amber Kline
Amber is a graduate student in the laboratory of Hiroyuki Kato and was awarded a three year NIH F31 Research Fellowship. She came to UNC with a BS in Biology from Butler University. Her project focuses on the neuronal circuits underlying integration of complex sounds in neurotypical brains and increase our understanding of how these circuits are altered in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Sofia Neira
Sofia is a graduate student in the laboratory of Tom Kash and was awarded a three year HHMI Gilliam Fellowship. She came to UNC with a BS in Psychology from the University of Central Florida and participated in UNC PREP. Her project examines the modulation and role of corticotropin releasing hormone neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in alcohol consumption and withdrawal from chronic alcohol. These neurons tightly regulate central and peripheral responses to stress, and have hardly been examined independently of the peripheral stress response in alcohol abuse.
Rahul Patel
Rahul is a graduate student in the laboratory of Mark Zylka and was awarded a three year NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. He came to UNC with a BA in Cell Biology and Neuroscience from Rutgers University. His project focuses on the molecular characterization of substrates underlying pain using single-cell sequencing and the development of a scalable-pain assay to discover novel analgesics.
Nancy Sey
Nancy is a graduate student in the laboratory of Hyejung Won and was awarded a three year NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She came to UNC with a BS in Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and participated in UNC PREP. Her project will use the recently developed H-MAGMA tool to investigate the biological mechanisms underlying substance use traits such as alcohol use disorder and nicotine dependence.
Luis Quintanilla
Luis is a graduate student in the laboratory of Juan Song and was awarded a three year NIH F31 Research Fellowship. He came to UNC with a BS in Neuroscience from University of California Riverside and a MS in Cell Molecular Biology from San Francisco State University. His project focuses on understanding how the cholinergic Septo-Hippocampal Circuit controls different hippocampal functions including learning, memory and circuit dynamics, and if we can alleviate some of the deficits associated with Alzheimer’s disease by manipulating this circuit.