Emily Makowicz
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Emily graduated from Hunter College double majoring in Biology and Psychology. Her interest in neuroscience mainly focuses on a molecular level. In particular, she is interested in neural plasticity and neuronal degeneration.
At Hunter College, her first exposure to neuroscience was under the mentorship of Dr. Stefan Schlussman in the lab of Dr. Philip Zeigler. She completed a thesis studying differences in texture and object discrimination and detection tasks in a transgenic mouse with genetic deletion of a transcription factor, drg11. Her lab exposure gave me immense insight into the behavioral neuroscience of the barrel cortex. She also volunteered in the Bratu Laboratory at Hunter College and got exposure to Drosophila melanogaster and confocal imaging techniques. After volunteering for a semester, she pursued a project under the mentorship of a PhD candidate, Omar Omar and Dr. Diana Bratu. her project focused on mRNA degradation in Drosophila oogenesis, specifically looking at the role of eRFIII (eukaryotic release factor III) in the regulation of protein levels. She also worked in the Aoki Lab at New York University with Dr. Chiye Aoki and a PhD candidate, Adrienne Santiago. She studied the neural mechanisms underlying resilience and vulnerability of mice in an Activity Based Anorexia model (ABA). Her research at NYU enabled me to combine both my interests of behavioral and molecular neuroscience. She gained skills in using electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry to complement behavioral analyses that explore neural pathways involved in anorexia nervosa. In the future, she aims to pursue a PhD degree in Neurobiology and Behavior and continue my research as a future professor. |