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Principal Investigator
Ann Graybiel Research Scientists Ken Amemori Satoko Amemori Jill Crittenden Sabrina Drammis Alexander Friedman Dan Gibson Emily Huske MinJung Kim Urvashi Upadhyay Postdoctoral Fellows and Associates Ayano Matsushima Georgios Papageorgiou Helen Schwerdt Qingfang Zhang Laboratory Staff Cody Carter Blaise Clarke Henry Hall Hu Dan Yasuo Kabuto Ara Majar Jane Savas Kathy Tran Tomoko Yoshida Undergraduate Research Associates Sophie Ack Chloe Ayers Kade Bose Ryan Conti Kaden DiMarco Avni Iyer Cynthia Schofield Quilee Simeon Graybiel-Lab Alumni List |
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Ken Amemori - Research Affiliate
amemori@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae researchmap.jp Ken finds that one of the most interesting and least understood functions of the brain is its ability to organize purposeful behaviors to react to the environment, using an enormous amount of information ranging from perception to emotion. To study how the brain accomplishes this, Ken switched to neuroscience after receiving his BS in Physics from the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies, Kyoto University in 1997. Using mathematical techniques, Ken built a theoretical framework for stochastically spiking neurons, which can represent the population dynamics of biological neuronal models, under the supervision of Prof. Shin Ishii at the Theoretical Life Sciences Lab, Nara Institute of Science and Technology. Many new theoretical approaches emerging in neuroscience today are contributing greatly to our understanding of brain function. To realize the full potential of the theoretical work, close cooperation of theory and experiment is needed. Ken was fortunate to have the opportunity to work directly with experimental researchers in the Lab of Cognitive Neurobiology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, where he worked as an instructor after receiving his PhD from NAIST in 2001. In the lab he began to perform his own experiments in physiology under the supervision of Prof. Toshiyuki Sawaguchi. The main theme of his research was the integration of motivation and cognition in the prefrontal cortex. Based on extracellular recordings, the lab found that the reward expectation in the prefrontal cortex selectively enhanced the working memory used for decision of a motor command, suggesting that the prefrontal cortex is mainly involved in guiding a goal-directed behavior. Following his training and research in neurophysiology, Ken joined the Graybiel Lab in 2005. Ken's present interests include, experimentally, the cooperative functions of the basal-ganglia and prefrontal cortex, and theoretically, statistical inference and neurodynamics. The long-term purpose of his research is to use a combined approach of theory and experiment to determine how the brain links emotion with behavior. An important step toward this goal would be to find out a causal link between neural activity and emotional decision. For this purpose, he is interested in combining multiple techniques to control the brain circuitry that governs decision-making behaviors. Using a variety of recording and manipulation techniques, he seeks to figure out the underlying mechanism of emotion and decision in primate brain. Back to top |
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Satoko Amemori - Research Affliate
satokoka@mit.edu Satoko joins the Graybiel lab with a PhD in Medicine from Hokkaido University, Japan, where she studied the neuronal mechanism of set-shifting in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of macaque monkeys. Here at the Graybiel lab, in collaboration with Ken Amemori, she is studying cortico-basal ganglia circuits of non-human primates underlying conflict decision-making using neurophysiological, anatomical, and virus-based manipulation techniques. |
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Jill Crittenden - Research Scientist
jrc@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Jill's research is aimed at dissecting molecular mechanisms that influence our choice of motor behaviors. Motivation to initiate specific actions and simultaneously inhibit inappropriate motor movements is dependent on signaling through the basal ganglia, a group of brain nuclei that integrate incoming information from other brain regions that sense the environment, mood, and past experience. Input to the basal ganglia is mostly via the striatum, a large subcortical structure that receives excitatory inputs from all areas of the neocortex. The striatum is enriched in various neurochemicals, such as dopamine, acetylcholine, opioids and endocannabinoids, which all signal through cell-surface receptors to modulate excitatory inputs and motor behaviors. Such neuromodulation is thought to enhance our ability to optimize complex motor behaviors. Disruption of signaling through basal ganglia nuclei can have both motoric and psychological consequences. For example, in Huntington’s disease the death of striatal neurons that project to downstream basal ganglia nuclei is correlated with uncontrollable motor movements, compulsive behaviors, and mood disturbances. In Parkinson’s disease, degeneration of the dopaminergic inputs to the striatum results in the loss of voluntary movement and motivation, and an increased risk of depression. By contrast, drugs of abuse over-stimulate the dopaminergic system, which can elevate mood and drive hyperactivity and compulsive behaviors (including the habit-forming aspect of drug abuse). To understand neural mechanisms that regulate motor behavior, we use genetic engineering in mice that allows specific subtypes of brains cells and their connections to be visualized, isolated for analysis, molecularly controlled, and recorded. We also use mouse models to mimic disease-causing mutations in humans. By intercrossing these different types of transgenic mice, we can better understand how motor diseases impact the function of brain cells, and how we might mitigate symptoms. We have focused expertise on a striatal cell subtype in clusters called striosomes. Striosomal neurons have unusually dense synaptic contacts onto a subset of dopaminergic neurons that are thought to be particularly vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease. An imbalance in striosomal activity, relative to the surrounding striatal matrix, is associated with several movement disorders, including L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias, Huntington's disease, dystonia and drug addiction. These diseases share features of abnormally repetitive behaviors and mood disturbances. We are working to identify genes that are dysregulated in these movement disorders and whether selective modulation of striosome or matrix compartment signaling can ameliorate symptoms in animal models. Back to top |
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Alexander Friedman - Research Scientist
afried@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Alexander joins the Graybiel lab with a PhD in Neuroscience from the Bar Ilan University, where he studied representations of depression and addiction in the brain. Now at the Graybiel lab, he pursues the neuronal decoding of decision making. Currently, he employs multi-electrode recordings, voltametry, optogenetics and brain imaging to explore relations between decision making and stress, as well as their representation in the striatum and its related circuits. The analysis of the simultaneous neuronal recording requires the development of innovative mathematical tools. In Graybiel lab Alexander develop novel approaches for data analysis and modeling. Back to top |
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Dan Gibson SRS IT/IS Professional
dgibson@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Dan was born and raised in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, a few miles from Tanglewood. According to legend, his first contact with MIT was at the age of 6 when he declared that MIT was the college of his choice. Dan later obtained a Bachelor's degree at MIT in Course 7 (Life Sciences). While pursuing his doctorate at Johns Hopkins, he cultivated his loves for engineering, theory and music. After graduation, Dan pursued a path involving multiple forays into various types of music composition and performance, modern and Afro-ethnic dance, and software engineering in New York City. A period of introspection and retrospection in the early aughts led Dan back to the MIT campus, where he was surprised to find a job listing in the campus newspaper that appeared to be written specifically to his resume. It turned out to be from the Graybiel Lab, which Dan joined in 2003. A "mid-life" period of introspection and retrospection led Dan back to the MIT campus, to the Graybiel Lab. When not programming or analyzing electrophysiology data, Dan's interests include dance, playing the djimbe (an African drum), good food, and such theoretical areas as information and thermodynamic entropy and Maxwell's Demon, complexity science (Santa Fe Institute), and brain architecture. He badly misses playing with his Rush Tribute band from the NYC days, Power Windows. Back to top |
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MinJung Kim - Research Scientist
mjk1028@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Min Jung Kim has been studying, and will continue to study, the functional roles of dopamine in relation to the striatum that governs behavioral adaptations, such as learning, motivated actions and habit formation. There are ample evidences that dopamine in the striatum is a key neuromodulator enabling actions properly adapted according to what is needed, but the essential principles governing the functions are poorly understood. This requires multifaceted and the state of the art approach on behaving animals. To achieve this, she has utilized and will employ various in vivo methods, such as electrophysiological, electrochemical, optogenetic/pharmacological, and imaging techniques while animals perform various tasks. The results of her work will advance basic scientific knowledge about how the motivated behaviors are governed and how the striatal circuits interact with the dopamine system. Her research may also identify possible clinical targets for the treatment and/or prevention of Parkinson’s disease, mood disorders and other mental illnesses caused by abnormal regulation or loss of dopamine. Outside of research, she spends most of her time with traveling, social activities with friends or meditating at a park. She loves walking on trails of Mt. Auburn cemetery or Fresh pond in the early mornings, watching night scenery of Charles river, and attending summer programs at Tanglewood. She easily discovers her delight with coffee, dark beer, pinot noir, dark chocolate, blue sky, and various sound of wind. During commute, she is dedicated to read mangas (Japanese comic books). She loves hiking a mountain but her sport-induced asthma prevents her doing it significantly (but she still challenges herself from time to time). Back to top |
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Urvashi Upadhyay - Research Affiliate
upadhyay@bu.edu Curriculum Vitae A native of the Greater Boston area, Dr. Upadhyay attended the Massachusetts of Technology and John Hopkins University School of Medicine. She then returned to the area for her neurosurgery residency at Harvard Brigham and Women’s/Children’s Hospital Boston program and a skull base fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Throughout her medical training, Dr. Upadhyay has conducted research into delivering chemotherapy to the brain for treating tumors and more recently has returned to the Graybiel Lab joining research efforts in understanding neurophysiology in the basal ganglia. Dr. Upadhyay joined the faculty at Boston University in 2019 after working at UMass Medical School, where she began a skull base program for the treatment of complex brain tumors. She specializes in neuro-oncology and skull base brain tumors and hopes to bridge the gap from the laboratory to the patient’s bedside. Back to top |
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Ayano Matsushima - Post Doctorate Fellow
ayanom@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Ayano has a prime interest in the biological basis that governs the way we act, think and become psychologically ill. As a vestige of the evolution that has selected designs or logics of the nervous system, the brain development in the extant animals might reveal the step-by-step implementation of the elemental schemes. The snapshots may reveal an overarching program, i.e. how existing neural circuits are selected and elaborated to define the behavioral repertoires of a given species. Understanding from this perspective would be material to comprehend the etiologies of neurodevelopmental disorders, e.g. as a maladaptation of ancient, millions-year-old systems built in the brain. More specifically, she's working to understand the cell-type specific vulnerability observed in Huntington’s disease; if it could be accounted for cell-type specific molecular pathways governed by the developmental history (i.e., birthdate and/or birthplace) of the cells, especially, striatal projection neurons. Back to top |
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Georgios Papageorgiou - Post Doctorate Associate
gpapageo@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Georgios received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2016, under the supervision of Professor Matthew Rushworth and Dr Mark Walton. His Ph.D. focused on the neural mechanisms of reward-guided learning and irrational decision-making. For this purpose, he employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV). He joined the Graybiel Lab in 2017 for postdoctoral research. His current research is focused on cost-benefit decision-making and learning, and how these are affected by mood-related disorders. For his research, he employs electrophysiology, electrical miscrostimulation and pharmacological manipulations. Back to top |
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Helen Schwerdt - Post Doctorate Fellow
schwerdt@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Website Helen is working in the labs of Dr. Michael Cima and Dr. Ann Graybiel to develop better ways to treat and understand the brain and its disorders. Previously, she worked on wireless microsystems for passive (battery-less) recording and stimulation of neural activity. B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2008 M.S.E., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 2009 Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, 2014 Back to top |
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QingFang Zhang - Post Doctorate Fellow
qingfang@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Qingfang received her PhD from Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, mainly working on the circuit and neural activity in visual system. After joining the Graybiel lab in Sep, 2019, she is studying the circuit and potential role of basal ganglia underlying behavior with optogenetics, virus tracing and calcium imaging. Back to top |
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Cody Carter - Technical Associate II
cwcarte@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Cody started working in the Graybiel lab in May, 2015. His goal is to learn and master many neuroscience techniques but his primary focus is to perfect fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) in both rats and mice. Cody graduated from the University of Michigan in 2015 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a B.S. in Biomolecular Science. There, he worked in the Aragona and Robinson laboratories using FSCV to study the role of dopamine in addictive behaviors. In his free time, Cody enjoys reading, rowing and video games. Back to top |
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Hu Dan - Research Scientist
hudan@mit.edu After receiving B.S. and M.S. in Psychology from Peking University in China, Hu Dan came to the U.S. to experience the “front line” research of brain function. Years of work at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and the University of Texas at Austin not only gave her a PhD degree, but also left her with a big decision of staying in research (of brain function) camp. It was the postdoc experience from Dr. Ann Graybiel lab in MIT and from Dr. Judith Walters lab in NINDS settled her interests in studying the basal ganglia, a big subcortical brain structure related to cognitive motor function, procedure learning, several neurological diseases and more. Since re-joining the Graybiel lab in 2004 as a research scientist, she has been involved in many research projects attempting to understand striatal neural activity pattern and the role of dopamine, accomplished while rats and mice acquired different learning tasks. Besides research life, she enjoys interacting with research fellows of the lab from all over the world and learning the culture of their home countries, and hopes that one day she will visit each of the countries her colleagues came from. Back to top |
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Henry Hall - Research Specialist
hallhf@mit.edu Native to small-town desert Southern California, Henry flew east and entered MIT sight-unseen in September 1966. (Rather than risk the political excitement at UC Berkeley.) With effort he achieved an SB in 1971, Course VII, and letters in track. He had taken numerous Psychology Department courses, including a neuroanatomy course without equal, taught by Ann Graybiel’s graduate studies mentor Dr. Walle H J Nauta. (All as an intellectually satisfying trick to avoid taking real humanities distribution requirement subjects.) And a few years later he happened to “rescue” Prof. Graybiel’s first technical employee from the Charles River after Tech dinghy capsize. So it must have seemed a good enough fit when he applied to join her young Laboratory as a second histology technician in 1974. Deepest personal interests were sailing (especially teaching in small boats and conducting races), low-level ice hockey, silver grain photography, and doing a bit of mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and particularly memorable, the White Mountains. He’s pretty much retired from all that now, concentrating on Laboratory support, keeping up daily physical exercise, and watching too many of this country’s people lose the battle against ignorance and fantasy. Fortunately, between the MIT Sailing Pavilion and the Graybiel Laboratory, he has been privileged to know well a number and variety of deeply interesting, talented and thoughtful people that likely exceeds your imagining Back to top |
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Yasuo Kubota - Research Scientist
ykubota@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Yasuo's interest is in the neural basis of learning and memory. His main questions include which brain area is involved in acquiring new information and how the newly learned information is stored by neurons. Humans often perform the same motor action and behavioral procedure repeatedly, and these acts become so routine that we carry them out almost without conscious effort. He has tried to discover the forms of neural representation underlying this habit learning mediated by the striatum and its related neural circuitry. In a landmark study, Yasuo was a part of a research team that chronically recorded the ensemble activity of 30-50 striatal neurons in the freely moving rats during acquisition and performance of a procedural learning task in a T-maze with multiple tetrodes (electrodes with four recording channels). They found striking changes in the task-related responses of neurons in the sensorimotor region of the striatum. At the beginning of training, many neurons in this area increased their firing frequencies during turning at the choice point of the maze. However, with training, units showing the turn-related response decreased significantly. Instead, there were significant increases in units that increased or decreased discharges in relation to the opening of the start-gate or initiation of locomotion (start-related response) and to reaching the goal area (goal-related response). These results suggest that the neural representation of behaviors necessary to perform this learning task undergoes transformation during acquisition, and that the new pattern of representation that develops as a result of learning emphasizes the beginning and the end of the automatized behavioral procedure. Yasuo now key support for a number of lab activities, including manuscript preparation, grant proposals, progress reports and various aspects of lab management. Back to top |
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Ara Majar - Technical Associate I
amahar@mit.edu Ara came to Boston to study neuroscience at Northeastern University. Upon graduating in 2015, they worked as a teacher abroad, then returned to Boston and started working in the Graybiel Lab in 2019 as a technical associate. They enjoy dabbling in a diverse range of activities in the lab, mainly focusing on histology, but also with an emphasis on animal colony management and lab management. Academically, they enjoy learning about topics across various fields within the greater umbrella of neuroscience, but they tend to focus on research about and potential treatments for neurological disorders. Outside of the lab, Ara's interests mainly center around the study of Japanese history and culture. An avid kimono enthusiast, they can be found wearing almost exclusively traditional Japanese garments outside of work. Besides their study of various cultural traditions, Ara is also a lover of plants and animals, the great outdoors, and gaming. Back to top |
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Jane Savas - Senior Administrative Assistant
jesavas@mit.edu Jane began working at Graybiel Labs in January of 2020 supporting Dr. Graybiel as her Senior Administrative assistant. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with her family in Maine, running, yoga and skiing. Back to top |
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Kathy Tran- Technical Associate I
kttran@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Kathy Tran graduated from University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BS in Animal Science in 2017. She joined the Graybiel Lab as a technician in 2018. In her free time, she loves to hang out with her dog Jojo, play sports, and draw. Back to top |
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Tomoko Yoshida - Technical Associate I
yoshidat@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae After receiving MD from Nagoya City University, Japan in 2008, Tomoko worked as a physician and got interested in movement disorders. To study cortico-basal ganglia network, she joined Graybiel Lab in 2013. Her personal interests are socializing with friends and family, traveling and reading. Back to top |
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Quilee Simeon - Undergraduate Research Associate
qsimeon@mit.edu Curriculum Vitae Quilee is an undergrad senior at MIT majoring in Computation and Cognition and also an MEng candidate in the same. I am fascinated by the complexity of the human brain and its ability to achieve functions that are still seem very much ethereal to us. More broadly, I am also interested in the field of Natural Computing. Three words that would describe me are analytical, ambitious, and empathetic. I consume literature and especially enjoy reading fiction. MIT‘s Global Teaching Labs has afforded me the ability to travel to multiple countries and I now consider myself a novice traveller who enjoys the thrill of seeing new places and meeting interesting people! Back to top |