Katy L
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at Oregon Health Sciences University
Expertise
Neurobiology of disease and neurobiology of development
Bio
Hi! I'm Katy and I'm interested in how cells talk to each other in the brain. Generally I'm interested in what goes wrong in the brain during developmental disorders like Autism, and degenerative disorders like Alzheimer's. After college I worked for two years at the NIH and asked why olfaction, the sense of smell, if often a sign of neurodegeneration. I'm currently working on my Ph.D. in developmental neuroscience and my thesis is about how astrocytes, a cell type that looks like a star and is important for providing neuronal support, can influence neurons during development. Outside of lab I can usually be found on a hiking trail, campsite, ski route, bouldering wall or soccer field. I'm also passionate about Equity and Inclusion and have served as both Education and Communication co-chair for the Alliance for Diversity and Science, a group that works to increase racial equity in the research programs at our university.Project ideas
Weird brains and what we know about them
A review article looking at non-traditional model organisms in neuroscience research. A lot of neuroscience research is done using animals like mice, zebrafish, flies, but what can we learn from other animals? Ground squirrels hibernate in the winter, what happens to their brains during these cold, inactive months? Ants have highly complex social systems, how did they evolve these behaviors? Salmon return to the stream they were born in to spawn, where in their brains is the circuit that allows them to navigate with such precision? Pick a few animals and we'll do a literature review on what we know about the neuroscience of that animal, what unique questions we can ask about that animal, and propose a few experiments.
Neuronal Development Comic Book
Making a short comic book about neuronal development. You'll research how the human brain develops and how that development is reflected in behavior. We'll work together to turn your research into a story and then make that story into a short comic book.