Student Publications and Fellowships

Alessandro Bortolami

Bortolami, A., Yu, W., Forzisi, E. et al. Integrin-KCNB1 potassium channel complexes regulate neocortical neuronal development and are implicated in epilepsy. Cell Death Differ (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-022-01072-2

Bortolami, A., Sesti, F.  Ion channels in neurodevelopment: lessons from the Integrin-KCNB1 channel complex”. Neural Regeneration Research, (2023). DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.371347

Bortolami, A., Sesti, F. "Chapter 21: Ion channels and the aging brain " Factors Affecting Neurological Aging Genetics, Neurology, Behavior, and Diet editor K. Preedy, Elsevier, (2021). DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-817990-1.00021-4

Nusrath Yusuf

Yusuf, N, Monahan, K. Epigenetic programming of stochastic olfactory receptor choice. Genesis 2024 Apr;62(2):e23593. doi: 10.1002/dvg.23593

Christen Crosta

Crosta CM, Hernandez K, Bhattiprolu AK, Fu AY, Moore JC, Clarke SG. Dudzinski NR, Brzustowicz LM, Paradiso KG, Firestein BL.  Characterization hiPSC-derived neural progenitor cells and neurons to investigate the role of NOS1AP isoforms in human neuron dendritogenesis Mol Cell Neurosci. 2020 Dec;109:103562 doi: 10.1016/j.mcn.2020.103562. Epub 2020 Sep 26.

Elena (Forzisi) Kathera-Ibarra

E. Forzisi, W. Yu,P. Rajwade and F. Sesti  Antagonistic roles of Ras-MAPK and Akt signaling in integrin-K(+) channel complex-mediated cellular apoptosis.  FASEB J 2022 Vol.36 Issue 5 Pages e22292

Emmanuel Alvarez

Alvarez EE, Hafezi S, Bonagura D, Kleiman EM and Konova AB (2022) A Proof-of-Concept Ecological Momentary Assessment Study of Day-Level Dynamics in Value-Based Decision-Making in Opioid Addiction. Front. Psychiatry 13:817979. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.817979

Shradha Suresh was awarded a New Jersey Commission of Brain Injury & Research (NJCBIR) Fellowship 2024-2027 $168,000

Branden Sanabria was awarded an NRSA F31-P Grant 2021-2024, $39,636.

Branden Sanabria was awarded an NIH F31 pre-doctoral fellowship "The Role of Corticostriatal Microcircuitry in Sensorimotor Integration”, July 2021.

Alessandro Bortolami was awarded an Autism Predoctoral Fellowship by the NJ Governor's Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism 2022-2024, $60,000.

Tanner Clifford was awarded an NIH-Rutgers Biotechnology Training Grant 2022.

Christen Crosta was awarded an NIH-Rutgers Biotechnology Training Grant 2019.

Emma Schweitzer was awarded an NIH NJACTS TL1 Predoctoral Fellowship 2021-2023 2-years $73,564.

Emmanuel Alvarez was awarded an NIH NIDA F31 Grant 2024-2026 Characterizing the formation and maintenance of drug-biased beliefs in opioid use disorder $44,036 x 2 years

Manny also received a Rutgers Training in Addiction Research Program (TARP) NIH/NIDA  PI: Pierce 09/2023-02/2024

and

Translational Research Training in Addictions for Racial/Ethnic Minorities at the City College of New York, Columbia University Medical Center, & Rutgers University (TRACC-RU) NIH/NIDA  09/2020-08/2023

Francesca LoFaro was awarded an NIH F31 Grand 2024 $47,217

Francesca LoFaro also received an NIH T32 TARP Fellowship 2024 $27,144

Kimberly Newman was awarded an NIH T32 Grant 2023 $27,144

Tess Kowalski was awarded an NIH F31 Grant 2024-2027  Investigating habitual behavior & dopamine dysregulation in Tourette Syndrome $37,454

Hanna Caiola was awarded NJ Governor’s Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism 2024-2026 $100,000

Nusrath Yusuf was awarded an NIND F31 Grant 2023-2025, $39,072 per year

Awarded PhD in 2022:  Ileana Fuentes, Nofar Engelhard

Awarded PhD in 2023:  Alex Yonk, Aman Upadhyay, Isabella Maita, Nydia Chang, Tomas Kasza, Iva Salamon

Awarded PhD in 2024: Courtney McDermott, Mark Presker, Irving Estevez, Mikayla Voglewede, Guan-En Graham, Michael Rallo, Christopher O'Brien

Mikayla Voglewede

Voglewede, MM, Zhang, H. Polarity proteins: Shaping dendritic spines and memory.  Dev. Biol. 2022 May 14;488-68-73. doi:10.1016/j-ydbio.2022.05.007. PMID:35580729.

Iva Salamon

Salamon, I. and Rasin, M.-R. (2022). Evolution of the Neocortex Through RNA-Binding Proteins and Post-transcriptional Regulation. Front. Neurosci. 15, 803107. doi:10:3389/fnins.2021.803107.

Chris O'Brien

Chris O'Brien,  Roshni Vemireddy, Uzma Mohammed and David J. Barker  Stress reveals a specific behavioral phenotype for opioid abuse susceptibility  Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior  2022, 1-14.

Alex Yonk

Yonk AJ, Margolis DJ.  Traces of Learning in Thalamocortical Circuits. Neuron. 2019 Jul 17;103(2):175-176. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.06.020. PMID:  31319043

Courtney McDermott

McDermott CR, Farmer C, Gotham KO, Bal VH.  Measurement of subcategories of repetitive behaviors in autistic adolescents and adults.  Autism in Adulthood 2020 March 2; 2(1):1-13

Michael Rallo

Rallo MS, Narayan V, Majmundar N, Al-Mufti F, Sun H, Jumah F, Raju B, Roychowdhury S, Nanda A, Gupta G.  Multi-modal endovascular management of traumatic pseudoaneurysm and arteriovenous fistula of the ascending cervical artery: A technical report and review of literature.  Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2021 Mar; 202:106539. doi: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2021.106539. Epub 2021 Feb 2. PMID: 33601270

Rallo MS, Ashraf O, Jumah F, Gupta G, Nanda A.  An analysis of cross-continental scholarship requirements during neurosurgical training and national research productivity.  Neurosurg Focus. 2020 Mar 1;48(3): E20. doi: 10.3171/2019.12.FOCUS19856. PMID: 32114557

Rallo MS, Nosko M, Agag RL, Xiong Z, Al-Mufti F, Roychowdhury S, Nanda A, Gupta G. Neurosurgical and Scalp Reconstructive Challenges During Craniotomy in the Setting of Cutis Verticis Gyrata.  World Neurosurg. 2019 May; 125:392-397. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2019.01.217. Epub 2019 Feb 11. PMID: 30763753

Anton Omelchenko

Omelchenko A, Shrirao AB, Bhattiprolu AK, Zahn JD, Schloss RS, Dickson S, Meaney DF, Boustany NN, Yarmush ML, Firestein BL. Dynamin and reverse-mode sodium calcium exchanger blockade confers neuroprotection from diffuse axonal injury Cell Death Dis. 2019 Sep 27;10(10):727. doi: 10.1038/s41419-019-1908-3. PMID: 31562294 PMID: 31562294 

Omelchenko A, Firestein BL. Lipids and phosphates at odds in synaptic depression.  J Biol Chem. 2018 Feb 2;293(5):1568-1569. doi: 10.1074/jbc.H117.813808. Epub 2018 Feb 2. PMID: 29414768

Tatiana Popovitchenko

Popovitchenko T, Rasin MR. Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Mechanisms of the Development of Neocortical Lamination. Front Neuroanat. 2017 Nov 9; 11:102. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2017.00102. eCollection 2017. Review. PMID: 29170632

Popovitchenko T, Thompson K, Viljetic B, Jiao X, Kontonyiannis DL, Kiledjian M, Hart RP, Rasin MR. The RNA binding protein HuR determines the differential translation of autism-associated FoxP subfamily members in the developing neocortex. Sci Rep. 2016 Jul 7; 6:28998. doi: 10.1038/srep28998. PMID: 27383233

Kristie Conde

Conde K, Roepke T. 17β-estradiol increases arcuate KNDy neuronal sensitivity to ghrelin inhibition of the M-current in female mice.  Neuroendocrinology. 2019 Sep 5. doi: 10.1159/000503146. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31484184

Apoorva Halikere

Halikere A, Popova D, Scarnati MS, Hamod A, Swerdel MR, Moore JC, Tischfield JA, Hart RP, Pang ZP.  Addiction associated N40D mu-opioid receptor variant modulates synaptic function in human neurons.  Mol Psychiatry. 2019 Sep 3. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0507-0. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:  31481756 

Matthew Scarnati

Scarnati MS, Halikere A, Pang ZP.  Using human stem cells as a model system to understand the neural mechanisms of alcohol use disorders: Current status and outlook. Alcohol. 2019 Feb; 74:83-93. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2018.03.008. Epub 2018 Mar 31. Review. PMID:  30087005 

Scarnati MS, Kataria R, Biswas M, Paradiso KG. Active presynaptic ribosomes in the mammalian brain, and altered transmitter release after protein synthesis inhibition.  Elife. 2018 Oct 30;7. pii: e36697. doi: 10.7554/eLife.36697. PMID: 30375975  

Caroline Pantazis

Pantazis CB, James MH, Bentzley BS, Aston-Jones G. The number of lateral hypothalamus orexin/hypocretin neurons contributes to individual differences in cocaine demand.  Addict Biol. 2019 Jul 11:e12795. doi: 10.1111/adb.12795. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:  31297913

Pantazis CB, Aston-Jones G. Lateral septum inhibition reduces motivation for cocaine: Reversal by diazepam.  Addict Biol. 2019 Mar 21. doi: 10.1111/adb.12742. [Epub ahead of print]PMID: 30896079 

Avery Zucco

Zucco AJ, Pozzo VD, Afinogenova A, Hart RP, Devinsky O, D'Arcangelo G.  Neural progenitors derived from Tuberous Sclerosis Complex patients exhibit attenuated PI3K/AKT signaling and delayed neuronal differentiation. Mol Cell Neurosci. 2018 Oct; 92:149-163. doi: 10.1016/j.mcn.2018.08.004. Epub 2018 Aug 23. PMID: 30144504

Matthew Kraushar

Kraushar ML, Popovitchenko T, Volk NL, Rasin MR.  The frontier of RNA metamorphosis and ribosome signature in neocortical development.  Int J Dev Neurosci. 2016 Dec; 55:131-139. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2016.02.003. Epub 2016 May 27. Review. PMID: 27241046

Kraushar ML, Viljetic B, Wijeratne HR, Thompson K, Jiao X, Pike JW, Medvedeva V, Groszer M, Kiledjian M, Hart RP, Rasin MR. Thalamic WNT3 Secretion Spatiotemporally Regulates the Neocortical Ribosome Signature and mRNA Translation to Specify Neocortical Cell Subtypes.  J Neurosci. 2015 Aug 5;35(31):10911-26. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0601-15.2015. PMID: 26245956 

Heather McGowan

McGowan H, Mirabella VR, Hamod A, Karakhanyan A, Mlynaryk N, Moore JC, Tischfield JA, Hart RP, Pang ZP.  hsa-let-7c miRNA Regulates Synaptic and Neuronal Function in Human Neurons.  Front Synaptic Neurosci. 2018 Jul 17; 10:19. doi: 10.3389/fnsyn.2018.00019. eCollection 2018. PMID: 30065644 

McGowan H.  Bridging the Gap between DNA Methylation, DNA Methylation Readers, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.  J Neurosci. 2016 Jun 29; 36(26):6851-3. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1130-16.2016. Review. No abstract available.PMID: 27358443 

McGowan H, Pang ZP. Regulatory functions and pathological relevance of the MECP2 3'UTR in the central nervous system.  Cell Regen (Lond). 2015 Oct 28; 4:9. doi: 10.1186/s13619-015-0023-x. eCollection 2015. PMID: 26516454

Alex Yonk was awarded an NIH NJACTS TL1 Predoctoral Fellowship 2019-2022.

Mikayla Voglewede was awarded an NIH F31 Grant “Mechanism of Par3-mediated regulation of dendritic spine plasticity” 2021-2023. 

Mikayla Voglewede was awarded an NINDS Grant, 2021-2024, $142,371.

Nydia Chang  was awarded an NINDS F31 Grant 2022-2023 

Nydia Chang was accepted for participation in the AAA CASE Workshop in 2020.

Iva Salamon was awarded an NJ Governor’s Council on Autism pre-doctoral fellowship “The role of the autism risk gene Celf4 in the specification of the first synapses during early neocortical development”, June 2021.

Iva Salamon was awarded a New Jersey Governor’s Council for Medical Research & Treatment of Autism Grant  2021-2023, $60,000.

Courtney McDermott was awarded an NIH NINDS F99/K00 Blueprint Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral  Advancement in Neuroscience (D-Span) Award that provides funding for final two years of PhD, $82,704 for the 2-year F99 phase, and four years of funding for postdoctoral training, 2022-2028.   Title of grant is "Examination of gut-microbiome-brain interactions in a novel gene x environment model of neurodevelopmental disorders"

Courtney McDermott was awarded a New Jersey Governor’s Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism Graduate Student Fellowship Program/July 1 2021-June 30 2023/$60,000

Courtney McDermott was awarded a NJ Governor’s Council on Autism pre-doctoral fellowship “Early life microbiota dysbiosis and autism: effects on neurodevelopment and behavioral outcomes”, June 2021.

Courtney McDermott received a TL1TR003019 Predoctoral Training Grant, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institute of Health (NIH)/Awarded Oct 2019/  $24,816 1 year

Courtney McDermott received the 2022 SFN Trainee Professional Development Award that includes complimentary registration for SFN Annual Meeting and a $1000 stipend for travel costs.

Courtney was also accepted as an Associate in the 2021 SFN NeuroScholars Program.

Guan-En Graham was awarded an NIH Diversity Supplement to promote diversity in a health-related research program 2022

Irving  Estevez was awarded the HHMI Predoctoral Gilliam Fellowship 2023-2026 $159,000

Irving Estevez was awarded an NIH Diversity Supplement / December 2021 / 3 years of funding

Mark Presker was awarded an NIH Grant "Stimulus Control of Attention in Cocaine Addiction: Role of Locus Coeruleus."  2019-2022.

Nofar Engelhard was awarded an NJ Commission on Spinal Cord Research Grant "Characterizing a Novel Spinal Cord Population: Role in Both Locomotive Control and Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury." 2019-2021. 

Anton Omelchenko received an NJCBIR Grant "Exosome-based Delivery of RNAi Therapeutics to Target Traumatic Brain Injury." 2019-2022. Anton was awarded his PhD in May 2021.

Caroline Pantazis received an NIH F31 Grant "Role of Lateral Hypothalamus Orexin Circuits in Cocaine Demand."  2016-2019. Caroline was awarded her PhD in May 2019 and is a Postdoctoral IRTA fellow at the National Institutes of Drug Abuse.

Anna Giarratana, MD/PhD candidate received an NJ Commission on Brain Injury Research Grant "Effect of Genetic Polymorphisms on Recovery and Treatment after Traumatic Brain Injury." 2016-2017 

Anna Giarratana, MD/PhD candidate, also received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Zurich.  2019. Anna was awarded her PhD in May 2019. 

Valentina Dal Pozzo received an NJCBIR Grant “Role of Reelin in Traumatic Brain Injury.” 2015-2018.  Valentina was awarded her PhD in October 2019 and is a Scientist I, Technical Support at Genewiz.

Joshua Stamos received an NIH Grant “Accumbens Mechanisms of Cue Reactivity and Affective State in a Rat Model of Binge Eating.” 2014-2017  Josh was also selected for the 4th Annual Rutgers-Jilin Graduate Student Research Forum which took place in China in June 2017. Josh was awarded his PhD in January 2019.

Mihir Patel received an NJCBIR Grant “Recovery of the Dendritic Network after Traumatic Brain Injury.” 2015-2018.  Mihir was awarded his PhD in October 2018.

Apoorva Halikere received an NRSA Grant “Neuronal Basis of OPRM1 A118G Polymorphism in Alcohol Use Disorders.” 2015-2018. Apoorva was awarded her PhD in May 2018.

Victoria DiBona received an NJCBIR Grant “Modulating Neuroinflammation for Treatment of TBI.” 2014-2017. Vicky was awarded her PhD in October 2017. 

Heather McGowan, MD/PhD candidate received an NINDS (NIH) Grant “Synaptic Function of Chromosome 21-encoded microRNAs.” 2014-2018. Heather was awarded her PhD in October 2017.  

Matt Kraushar, an MD/PhD candidate has been awarded two grants as a principal investigator. Dr. Kraushar's studies will be conducted at Charité - Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany, as part of his European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Postdoctoral Fellowship. 2014-2018. Matt was awarded his PhD in May 2016.