I am the Director of Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience of Cognition and Dementia at the Burke Neurological Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. My postdoctoral training was at Columbia University under Dr. Eric Kandel studying the role of h-channels on hippocampal place cell firing and spatial memory in HCN1 knockout mice. Having worked on the entorhinal cortex grid cells in the Moser group (NTNU), I became interested in how entorhinal cortex neurons are affected in Alzheimer’s disease. My lab aims to understand the mechanism underlying neuronal and network dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. Prior to Burke, I worked as an Assistant Professor at the Taub Institute at Columbia University Medical Center.
I am investigating how the neurons of MEC and LEC are affected in Alzheimer’s disease. I’ll use cutting-edge dense electrodes to record from hundreds of neurons to understand the electrophysiological patterns of selective vulnerability. In addition, I will use optogenetic technique to restore neuronal function.
Cristina Vargas
Research Scientist
BS Env. Science. (SUNY College)
I work closely with Alyssa to investigate brain regions involved in Alzheimer’s disease. I help with immunohistochemistry, electrophysiology and behavior experiments.
Christina Kanzlemar
Research Scientist
BS Animal Science (University of Florida)
MS Microbiology and Immunology (Colorado State University)
I focus on in vivo research, including colony maintenance, behavioral testing, electrophysiology, and immunohistochemistry.
Julian Dolan
Computational Research Scientist
BS Neurobiology (UC Irvine)
MS Mol. Sci. & Software Engg. (UC Berkeley)
I develop computational tools for analyzing datasets from electrophysiology and behavioral experiments. I strive to apply machine learning methods to uncover meaningful insights from complex neural data and to design scalable pipelines for neuroscience research.
Andrew Aoun
Computational Research Scientist (part-time)
BS Neuroscience (Brown University)
I focus on computational tools to analyze large scale datasets from electrophysiology and behavioral experiments in AD mouse models. I incorporate modeling and machine learning approaches to better understand and decode neural data. I also work on data pipelines and software to support general lab analysis tools. I am currently pursuing PhD at NYU.
Alumni
Gustavo Rodriguez
Associate Research Scientist
PhD Neuroscience
(Georgetown University)
Currently a Research consultant at Sendero Biosciences. I focused on understanding how neuronal populations in the entorhinal cortex (EC) and hippocampus (HIPP) are affected by amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau pathology, which are hallmark features of Alzheimer’s disease. I employed chemogenetics and in vivo electrophysiology in my research, and am interested in how neuronal modulation can effect Aβ accumulation and pathological tau in the entorhinal cortex – hippocampal (EC-HIPP) network.
Radha Raghuraman
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
PhD Neuroscience
(National University of Singapore)
Currently a postdoc at University of Glasgow. I studied early signs of neuronal vulnerability in locus coeruleus using in vivo recordings in the neurons of the hippocampus (HPC). I used human tau lysates in mice to address if tau pathology in locus coeruleus impacts downstream hippocampal neurons.
Thomas Tedesco
Research Technician (2022 - 2024)
BS Neuroscience (Fordham University)
I worked closely with Dr. Radha Raghuraman and work on optimizing immunohistochemistry protocols and their visualizations. Currently at Montclair University.
Anurag Sharma
Computational Research Scientist
MS Biomedical Engineering
(Columbia University)
Currently at PathOmiq. I developed and maintained software for data analysis obtained from single-unit electrophysiology experiments.
Oliver Shetler
Senior Data Scientist (Contractor)
MA Statistics and Applied Mathematics
(City University of New York, Hunter College)
Currently at NextGen Healthcare. I developed techniques for making sense of neural data using statistics and machine learning. I worked on Earth Mover’s Distance and NeuronTracker algorithm.
Eva Rothenberg
Senior Research Technician (2020 - 2023)
BA Biology (Skidmore College)
Currently at Regeneron. I worked closely with Dr. Rodriguez, doing in-vivo electrophysiology recordings in mouse models of AD, and performed tissue sectioning, IHC and IF staining.
Hande Yuceer Korkmaz
International Graduate Student (2023-2024)
PhD Neuroscience
Istanbul University
Currently in DRI, UCL. I worked on the role of NMDA receptors in aging and disease as part of my PhD thesis funded by Fulbright Scholarship. Currently at Istanbul University.
Joshua Cho
PhD student (2018 - 2022) (co-mentored by Dr. Ismael Santa-Maria)
MA Cell, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies
(Columbia University)
Currently a postdoc at University of Washington. I graduated in 2022. I studied the role of, and possible treatments for, miRNA dysregulation in tau pathology.
Alexandra Petrache
Research Consultant
PhD Neuroscience
(University College London)
Currently a freelance behavioral scientist. I assisted with analysis of electrophysiology data from the lateral entorhinal cortex in AD, contribute to manuscript writing and academically mentor students who are interning in the lab. Worked at IQVIA in London.
Helen Figueroa
Research Technician (2014-2024)
BS Biology
Currently at Columbia University. I performed animal husbandry of several transgenic lines and helped with behavioral experiments. Currently at Columbia University.
Srujan Vajram
Data Scientist (2020 - 2022)
BS Biomedical Engineering
(Boston University)
Currently pursuing MS at Columbia University. I helped with code for spatial analysis tool, spatial spectral mapper and other tools. Github. Currently a graduate student at Columbia Engineering. Worked at PathAI.
Linda Forsell
Research Consultant (2017-2021)
Medical Doctor
(Stockholm, Sweden)
Currently a Medical Doctor in Stockholm. I worked on the research and design of BrainWiki- a comparative neuroanatomy tool (BrainWiki.org).
David Vaughan – NeuroScikit 2.0 backend consultant (2023), Dilip Rajeswari – ML & DS consultant (2021-2022), Alice Zambon- Visiting graduate student (2019), Aisha Kazeem- Research assistant (2018-2019), Valerie Savage- Research technician (2016-2017), Eden Nahmani- Research technician (2015-2016), Eliana Goldberg- Bachelor’s student (2015-2016).
Interns– Arnav Panigrahi, Lauren Davidson, Katie Lim, Grace Wang, Sierra Deadhari, Nikhil Ramavenkat, Elakiya Jayaraman, Yash Tiwari, Matthew Spence, Alaa Ali, Ella Wilson, Julia Wu-Oswald, Nava Himelhoch, Soham Bafana, Ray Muroi, Sandhya Senthilkumar, Deeksha Kommireddi, Jessica George, Matthew Hou, Jessica Hui, Kaelin Main, Xavier Cambi, Talya Waxenburg, Matthew Hou, Adithi Jayaraman, Lisa Shah, Shaunice Grier, Michael Kim, Keerthi Jayaraman, Surya Krishnamurthy, Sarah Rogers, Hannah Straus, Ken Gjoni, Alejandro Capote, Masayuki Yanagiba, Yagiz Meric Altun, Arjun Gupta, Mark McNulty, Peter Salamon and Kyle Peter.