TEAM
LU XU
Postdoc
(joint with Stuart Firestein) Lu received her PhD in 2020 from Columbia University, where she worked on the mouse olfactory system with Stuart Firestein. Before Columbia, she graduated from Peking University with a Bachelor degree in medical science. In the Tosches lab, Lu is exploring the amphibian olfactory system, in collaboration with the Firestein and the Hillman labs.
ASTRID DERYCKERE
Postdoc
Astrid graduated from KU Leuven, Belgium in 2016 with a Master in Biochemistry and Biotechnology. She obtained her PhD at KU Leuven in 2020, studying postnatal neurogenesis in the mouse brain, and neurogenesis in the developing octopus embryo, under the supervision of Eve Seuntjens. In the Tosches lab, Astrid is interested in understanding vertebrate brain development in an evolutionary context.
GIANLUCA MERELLO
Rotation Student (Biological Sciences)
Gianluca graduated from PUC (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) with a BA in Biochemistry in 2019. He then worked as a research assistant studying epigenetic, transcriptional, and neurochemical changes in animal models of addiction. He is currently a graduate student at Columbia. He is interested in studying metabolic processes (i.e. protein, lipid, carbohydrate dynamics) in different cell types of the CNS and relating metabolic profiles to neuronal circuit function.
MARIA ANTONIETTA TOSCHES
Principal Investigator, Assistant Professor
Dr. Maria Antonietta Tosches studied developmental biology and neuroscience at the Scuola Normale Superiore and at the University of Pisa in Italy. She earned her PhD at EMBL in Germany, working on the annelid nervous system with Detlev Arendt. In 2014, she joined the group of Gilles Laurent at the MPI for Brain Research as a postdoc. Since 2019, she is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University, in the Department of Biological Sciences.
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JAMIE WOYCH
Staff Associate
Jamie is from Kingston NY, and received her BS in Biochemistry from SUNY New Paltz in 2018. She previously worked in the Cellular Biology Department at Rutgers University as a research associate, working with zebrafish as models for neural development. She is a driven scientist aspiring to continue her studies on the graduate level in neuroscience. She hopes to bridge her interests in biology and neuroscience through her work in the Tosches Lab as a Staff Associate.
ALONSO ORTEGA-GURROLA
Graduate Student (Neurobiology and Behavior)
Alonso graduated from UNAM in 2017 with BA in biology. He completed a Master's in Biochemistry also at UNAM, working on the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanun) as a model for brain regeneration. He is currently a graduate student at Columbia, being mainly interested in the field of neurodevelopment: cellular competence, chromatin dynamics, regulation of gene expression, cell type specification, and Neural Stem Cells.
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ELIZA JAEGER
Graduate Student (Biological Sciences)
Eliza graduated from Middlebury College in 2017 with BA in neuroscience. Post-graduation, Eliza worked as a research technician in the Axel Lab, studying how traumatic experiences in one generation may have behavioral and anatomical effects on their offspring, alongside post-doctoral researcher Bianca Jones Marlin. As a graduate student at Columbia, she hopes to gain new insights into the fields of neurodevelopment and evolution.