Paradis Lab Alumni
Name: Lily Silayeva
Position: Undergrad
Education: BS from Brandeis in 2009, currently a PhD candidate a Tufts University Medical School
Contact: lilster5@brandeis.edu
Hometown: Boston, MA
Personal Interests: Good live music, books that come in trilogies, biology.
If I weren't a scientist I'd be... the person in the salon who walks around saying "OH MY GOSH I wish i had your hair/complexion/skin!!! Darling, you look fabulous!!"
Research Interests: I'm really interested in protein function cause/effect relationships. I'm definitely a molecular biologist at heart and since working in the Paradis lab, I have become increasingly interested in neuroscience as well.
Name: Cristina Hilario
Position: Ms student in Neuroscience.
Education: B.S. University of Deusto, Bilbao (Basque Country) 2000.
Ph.D. Carlos III University, Madrid (Spain), Sept. 2008 (expected).
Contact: chilario@brandeis.edu
Hometown: Bilbao, Bizcay
Personal Interests: I am fan of the Athletic Club of Bilbao (almost a must) and the Spanish soccer team (especially when I am far from home). Besides I love the sea and am learning to sail. Whenever I have time I like running.
If I weren't a scientist I'd be... first violin at the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (I am just dreaming).
Research Interests: I am a computer engineer fascinated by the mysteries of the human brain. Before coming to Brandeis I wanted to understand how the brain can give rise to thought. After arriving to the university, I realized how far we are from that ideal and how hard is doing science. Probably I should focus my career toward computational neuroscience, but biology seems to me too exciting to ignore it. In the future, IŽd like to link neurobiology to neural computation. But right now, I want to focus in understanding the biological and chemical mechanisms in the mammalian CNS that give rise to learning and memory. Fortunately, in the laboratory of Suzanne Paradis, I have the opportunity to look at the synapse. Precisely, I want to understand what molecules affect inhibitory synapses formation. On that purpose, I am using genetics and RNAi techniques in rat hippocampal cultured neurons.
Name: Danna Zeiger
Position: 1st year Molecular and Cellular Biology PhD Rotation student
Education: B.A. Barnard College 2006
Contact: danna@brandeis.edu
Hometown: Wynnewood, PA
Personal Interests: Partly because I was raised by European immigrant parents, I have a great appreciation for and love of Europe. I enjoy travelling in general and seeing new historical sites as well as experiencing all the opportunities for culture. I also partly grew up on the Mediterranean and I love the sea there.
If I weren't a scientist I'd be... a math highschool teacher, a translator, own a children's bookstore, or a ceramicist.
Research Interests: Both my phenomenal Barnard neuroscience classes and my undergraduate mentor, Dr. John Martin, instilled in me an appreciation for our dynamic and still mysterious nervous system. As an undergraduate I worked in the Martin Lab at Columbia, which studies corticospinal injury and development. I completed my senior thesis there, which examined synaptic development and plasticity using confocal microscopy. Upon graduation, I worked for ten months as a technician for Dr. Greg Bashaw at the University of Pennsylvania, where I learned about using fly genetics, molecular biology, and axon guidance cues in the drosophila system. I am now in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program and enjoying learning about neuroscience from this perspective. At the Paradis lab where I am currently rotating, I am examining the role of Sema4D as a synaptic molecule necessary for inhibitory synapse development in the mammalian brain. Currently, I am using RNAi to investigate a few potential Sema4D receptors.