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Lauren S

- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at University of California San Diego (UCSD)

Expertise

Developmental neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, brain-machine interfaces, animal behavior, decision-making, neuroimmunology, non-human primates

Bio

Hi! I'm Lauren, and I am a Neuroscience PhD student at UCSD. I graduated in 2015 from UMass Amherst with a degree in Animal Science then went on to obtain my Master's from UMass in Neuroscience. During my time at UMass I studied rhesus macaques to understand how early life development contributes to anxiety and stress coping later in life. After that, I worked for two years in Ann Graybiel's lab at MIT where I helped develop ultra-thin probes for treatment of Parkinson's disease. I then joined the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as a project leader, studying how brain development during adolescence contributes to neuropsychiatric disease later in life. As a PhD student, I plan to study how to develop brain-machine interfaces to help people who are disabled more easily interact with the world and also how development can contribute to abnormal brain states. I grew up in Boston and lived in Massachusetts most of my life, but have been loving my recent move to California! I love going to the beach, rollerskating, hiking, and playing with my puggle, Penelope. Science, particularly neuroscience, can be a really daunting field. I want to show students that anyone, of any background, can be a scientist. I'm really excited to provide the kind of mentoring that I wish that I had received in high school.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Brain-Machine Interfaces and You!

I would help the student identify a simple but extremely effective application for a brain-machine interface, and we would work through the steps that would go into designing it. This could be for humans for even as creative as a song prosthesis for a bird. This could possibly result in a science fair project.

Animal Personailties

What shapes how animals make decisions as adults? Watching naturalistic animal behavior, we can observe how young animals behave shapes the roles they have later in life. This could be done through watching animals in your life or through zoo cams. This could result in a picture book, podcast, article, or report.

Coding skills

python, matlab, some R

Teaching experience

As a master's student, I independently came up with lesson plans and taught an upper-year writing course based on the use of animal models in neuroscience. I have also been a TA for multiple classes and ran discussion sections.

Credentials

Work experience

McGovern Institute of Brain Research at MIT (2016 - 2018)
Techincal Associate
The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (2018 - 2020)
Research Associate

Education

University of Massachusetts Amherst
BS Bachelor of Science (2015)
Animal Science
University of Massachusetts Amherst
MS Master of Science (2016)
Neuroscience and Behavior
University of California San Diego (UCSD)
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Neurosciences

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