ENGERTLAB
Department of Molecular and Cellular biology
Pedro Piquet
(2021-2022)
Masters Student; ABS in Biomedical Physics
UNICAMP, Brazil.
Pedro worked with Roy Harpaz studying the ontogeny of collective behavior of different teleost fish - Danionella, Medaka and zebrafish. Pedro used a combination of behavioral experiments and mathematical models to understand the way species specific swim patterns of individual animals and the animals' natural environments can shape their social interactions.
![laurens bw[2842].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/64eda6_fb70bc47447d467e995a223ba001ead0~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1545,h_1545,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/64eda6_fb70bc47447d467e995a223ba001ead0~mv2.jpg)
Laurens Dijkstra
(2022- 2023)
Masters Student; Delft University of Technology
The Netherlands
Laurens’ research focuses on the influence of heart rate on the decision-making process in zebrafish. He combines behavioral experiments with 2-photon imaging.
Paul Petzold
(2022-2023)
Masters Student; Physics
Ludwigs-Mazimilians UNiversity, Munich
Germany
Paul Paetzold worked on a variety of instrumentation projects ranging from building a modified mesoSPIM light-sheet setup for imaging cleared tissue to the characterization of reflective microscope objectives for imaging neuronal activity in larval zebrafish.
Nico Herndon
MCO Graduate Student, Harvard University
USA
Nico Herndon worked on building an inverted two-photon microscope for imaging the nodose ganglion in larval zebrafish.
Minh Nguyet Nguyen
(2020-2021)
Minh worked together with Roy Harpaz studying the way larva zebrafish integrate visual social information from their neighbors to guide their behavioral decisions. The project included behavioral experiments in natural settings and in novel virtual reality assays. Minh also performed imaging investigations of the underlying neural circuits using whole brain 2-photon calcium imaging in behaving animals.
She did her undergrad in Physics, then a master's in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. During her Master's, she came to the Engert lab and learned a lot more about neuroscience.
She is now a graduate student at Johns Hopkins in the Potter lab, where they study the olfactory system of the Malaria disease vector - Anopheles.
Nadine Oury
(2021-2023)
I am investigating the impact of sleep deprivation in larval zebrafish on the olfactory system through behavioral studies, molecular assays, and imaging. I hope this research can lead to a better understanding of the molecular and neural pathways impacted by sleep and sleep deprivation across species.
Paula Pflitsch
(2021-2023)
I am investigating the impact of sleep deprivation in larval zebrafish on the olfactory system through behavioral studies, molecular assays, and imaging. I hope this research can lead to a better understanding of the molecular and neural pathways impacted by sleep and sleep deprivation across species.
Morgan Philipps
(2023-)
Prior to undergrad, I spent a few years working for a nonprofit organization in under-resourced schools (teaching third-grade in Philadelphia and later in development in NYC).
I then completed my undergraduate degree in Neuropsychology in Paris, France.
My first research experience was at the APC Microbiome Institute in Cork, Ireland, studying the influence of microbiota on myelination and the production of oxytocin in larval zebrafish for Dr. John Cryan.
Now, helping you here — studying the neural circuits underlying social behaviour in larval zebrafish.
And applying for Ph.D.’s in December!
Ellie Hikima
(2023)
Ellie Hikima is a student that studies neuroscience and music at Wellesley College.
Currently, she is working with Dániel Barabasi to study how environmental pollutants found in everyday objects play a role in neurodevelopment. She enjoys collaborating on a study that combines her passion for the discipline of neuroscience and her love for environmentalism.
In her free time, she enjoys going to Handel and Haydn Society concerts and playing in quartets with her friends.
Marie-Abele Bind
(2018-)
Marie-Abele is an Instructor of Investigation at MGH Biostatistics and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School working on causal inference methods. She is interested in studying how exposure to environmental toxicants could affect cognitive function in wildtype and ASD-mutated zebrafish. Outside of biostatistics, she enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and being with family and friends.
Joana Avrami
(2022-)
Joana Avrami: Joana is a Harvard College senior concentrating in Neuroscience. She currently studies how the dynamics of contractility and heart rate change as larval zebrafish develop. She also studies how contractility may be encoded in vagal sensory ganglia.
Mariam Markabani
(2022-2023)
Mariam Markabani: Mariam is a Harvard College senior concentrating in Neuroscience. She is currently working on how heart rate is encoded in subsets of neurons of the vagal sensory ganglia, and on the anatomical development of vagal sensory ganglia.
Keyue Shi (Sky)
(2022-2023)
Keyue Shi (Sky): Sky is a University of Science and Technology (China) senior concentrating in Biology. She is currently working on the motor parasympathetic circuits that control cardiac function.
Areni Markarian
(2022-2023)
Areni majored in Neuroscience at Harvard (22'). She is currently working on the sympathetic circuits that control cardiac function.
Maanasa Mendu
(2023-)
Maanasa is a Harvard Colllege junior concentrating in Neuroscience. She is also a Simons Undergraduate Fellow. She works on developing mathematical models that capture the dynamics of heart rate and behavior at different developmental stages.
Lucy Chen
(2020-2023)
I’m an undergraduate in Currier concentrating in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a secondary in Statistics. My project in the Engert Lab focuses on using electron microscopy to create a connectome, a map of synaptic connections, of the zebrafish lateral line sensory system to better understand the lateral line's role in salt detection.
Marela Petkova
(2014 - )
Mariela provides the critical link between the LIchtman and Engert labs. She pioneered connectomics in the larval zebrafish and her projects aim to leverage anatomical circuit information and connectivity to validate, constrain and generate biophysically plausible circuit models.
Ella Foulkes
(2023)
Gabriella Foulkes is a student at Harvard College studying neuroscience and literature. She works on a project investigating the effects of common toxins on zebrafish behavioral patterns and is particularly interested in how these effects map across several neuropsychiatric disorders in the fish. Beyond the lab, she enjoys podcasts (both listening to them and creating them), baking, and dancing in a modern dance company at Harvard.
Dániel Barabási
(2020-)
Dániel Barabási is a PhD Candidate in the Harvard Biophysics program researching innateness in neurodevelopment and AI. On the rare days he hasn't snuck off to ski, Dániel studies the robustness of functional behavior to developmental perturbations, be it activity silencing, temperature, or pollution. Through his computational work, Dániel leverages connectomics and transcriptomics datasets to infer the wiring rules that guide the assembly of the brain.
Jonathan Boulanger-Weill
(2015 -)
Institut de la Vision, France and Harvard University
I work on the validation of a neural integrator circuit through correlated light and electron microscopy.
Using a novel experimental approach combining calcium imaging and volumetric electron microscopy we are describing the connectivity of neurons involved in temporal integration. This results will allow us to validate and constrain existing network models, and add resolution and confidence to previously proposed circuit arrangements.