César Javier Hernández, B.S., M.S., Physiological Systems (PSYS) Graduate Student

Since earning both my bachelor degree in Psychology and my master degree in Neuroscience from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, I have been interested in synaptic plasticity mechanisms. In my masters work, I researched regulation of dendritic spine morphogenesis by PINK1 in mouse hippocampal cultures. Now, I am pursuing a doctoral degree at UMD thanks to one of the Fulbright Colombia Commission Scholarships awarded in 2020. In the Speer lab, I focus my research on the synaptic organization of inhibitory amacrine cell input to ON⍺ retinal ganglion cells. My experimental approach to studying retinal circuit inhibition takes advantage of  conditional knockouts of scaffolding proteins that cluster glycine or GABA(A) receptor subunits together with expansion microscopy (ExM) for high-resolution fluorescence imaging.

Tarlan Vatan, B.S., Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) Graduate Student

I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Maryland in 2020. As an undergraduate research assistant in the Speer lab, I successfully tested and implemented a protocol to perform tissue imaging using Expansion Microscopy (ExM). My research interest is understanding how spontaneous activity during development drives proper wiring of neural circuits. I am interested in studying the underlying molecular mechanism of this spontaneous activity-dependent eye-specific segregation by looking at synaptic organelles, specifically mitochondria and ribosomes. I am using super-resolution imaging (STORM) of synapses and live imaging of axon trafficking to characterize how mitochondria and ribosomes are affected by disruptions in retinal wave activity.

Collin Lee, Undergraduate Student in Neurobiology and Physiology

I am currently a sophomore majoring in Biology with a specialization in Physiology and Neurobiology. I am also in the University Honors program. My research interests include using imaging techniques to see how the synapses connecting each eye to the brain develop in mice. Currently, I am studying how different drugs, like epibatidine and forskolin, impact activity-dependent plasticity of synapses in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the brain.

Rebecca Pomerat, Undergraduate Student in Neuroscience

I am currently a senior majoring in Neuroscience with a focus on the Molecular, Cellular, and Physiological track and am a member of the Neuroscience Honors Program. My research interests focus on how intrinsic cellular properties and signaling pathways guide the development of visual circuits. My current thesis project investigates how intrinsic light sensitivity and PACAP signaling regulate the development of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell (ipRGC) axon projections. I plan to examine axon projection patterns at both the population and single-cell levels, providing insight into how specific molecular signals influence the wiring of visual pathways during development.