Current Trainees

Trainee Mentor:
Dr. Vivian Gama

Research Title:
Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Description:
Defects in mitochondrial fission caused by mutations in Dynamin-Related Protein 1 (DRP1) result in severe neurodevelopmental phenotypes, including developmental delay, optic atrophy, and epileptic encephalopathies. Despite the increasing number of patients identified with DRP1 mutations, the mechanisms by which impaired mitochondrial fission disrupts human neurodevelopment remain poorly understood. Using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), my research aims to investigate how DRP1 mutations alter neuronal differentiation and function, and how these defects contribute to neurodevelopmental disease.

Trainee Mentor:
Dr. Bruce Carter

Research Title:
Jedi as a Central Regulator of Microglial Phagocytic and Lysosomal Homeostasis Across Development, Aging, and Injury

Research Description: 
Microglia are long-lived resident immune cells that preserve central nervous system homeostasis across the lifespan through continuous surveillance, phagocytosis, and regulation of inflammatory tone. Because microglia persist for decades, they must sustain efficient degradative and clearance pathways despite cumulative cellular stress associated with development, aging, and injury. Disruption of these processes contributes to chronic neuroinflammation, impaired plasticity, and worsened outcomes following neurological insult. Our work identifies the phagocytic receptor Jedi as a critical regulator of microglial homeostasis. We demonstrate that loss of Jedi leads to early and sustained alterations in microglial inflammatory state, including elevated inflammatory gene signatures during development that persist into adulthood. At later ages, Jedi deficiency results in pronounced lysosomal dysregulation, marked by enlarged CD68-
positive lysosomes in microglia within plastic brain regions such as the hippocampus and cortex. These findings suggest that Jedi is required to couple phagocytic signaling with lysosomal function to maintain microglial identity over time. Importantly, our data support a model in which early disruption of Jedi-dependent homeostatic programs has lasting consequences for microglial function across the lifespan, predisposing the aging brain to maladaptive inflammation and impaired recovery after injury. Defining how Jedi regulates microglial phagocytosis, lysosomal maintenance, and inflammatory restraint will provide fundamental insight into mechanisms of microglial aging and identify new opportunities to modulate microglial responses in neurodegenerative disease and stroke.

Trainee Mentor:
Dr. Qiangjun Zhou and co-mentor Dr. Ege Kavalali

Research Title:
Cryo-EM protein tag design with applications in neural science

Research Description:
We aim to design a protein tag that can be used to identify target proteins in electron micrographs as well as electron tomograms of FIB milled neurons and other cell types. The protein tag can also be used to study the interactions of SNARE and other proteins.