Kelly B
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at New York University
Expertise
Neural circuits, neuroscience
Bio
Hi! My name is Kelly, and I am a Neural Science PhD student at New York University. I am interested in studying how the cells in the brain are wired into circuits in order to I am particularly interested in topics such as sensation, emotion, attention, arousal and consciousness. I am interested in mentoring because I am very passionate about making science accessible to everyone. I also want to share my excitement for getting to understand how your brain works! Outside of the lab, I enjoy training dogs, playing board games, cooking, and being outdoors!Project ideas
Optogenetics?!?
Our brain is made up of a bunch of cells, but one of the big tasks we have as neuroscientists is to figure out which cells talk to each other and how this causes behavior. A relatively recent advance in neuroscience has been the development of something called 'optogenetics'. This tool lets us use light to activate cells and see who they talk to and how this affects behavior. This project could investigate some of these ideas: 1) basic literature search to understand how optogenetics technology works 2) design a project using optogenetics to answer a question about behavior prerequisites: basic understanding of biology (AP biology?), proteins and cell membranes
How many different types of cells are there in the brain?
The way that neuroscientists think about cells in the brain is by dividing them into different subtypes. There are lots of ways for cells to be divided up, including genetic markers, proteins or other molecular markers, what neurotransmitters they use, where they are in the brain, where they project to, etc. The project could investigate: 1) What are the major subtypes of cells agreed upon in a specific brain region (of your choice) 2) How do different cellular identification/labels help us to understand how the brain works? Do you think having more or less groups of cells is better? 3) Design an project to study a specific type of cell in the brain and why this classification is helpful for understanding what these cells do prerequisites: basic understanding of biology (AP biology?)