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, Biology Honors Program

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.

Michael Glen, Undergraduate Student in General Biology

I am a senior majoring in Biological Sciences (General Biology) at UMD. My research interests lie in understanding the molecular organization of synapses and other neuronal structures. I hope to apply that to the study of neurodegeneration, aging, and development. I previously worked in Dr. Anand Swaroop’s lab at the National Eye Institute, where I evaluated a small molecule treatment for retinitis pigmentosa in a rat model using immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. In the Speer Lab, I am currently working on the optimization of an expansion microscopy protocol for super-resolution imaging of the mouse retina.