The People of the Kristan Lab
B. S. in Microbiolgy, San Diego State University, 1986 Joyce came to the Kristan Lab in 1992 to assist in the work of culturing neurons in vitro. She currently manages the breeding colony, oversees the lab's daily activities, and is the safety officer.
Joyce A. Murphy - Lab Manager, Hirudo midwife
Former Members
Graduate Students
Post-Docs
Kevin Briggman 2005
Lisa Johnson 1999
Shawn Lockery 1989
Serapio M. Baca 2005
Tim Cacciatore 1999
Curtis Loer 1988
Eric Thomson 2004
John Lewis 1997
Mike Nusbaum 1984
Adam Taylor 2003
Brian Shaw 1996
Joel Glover 1984
Jamie Eisenhart 2000
George Wittenberg 1991
Janis Weeks 1980
Michael Baltzley
Antonia Marin-Burgin
Ralf Wessel
James Murray
Lidia Szczupak
Richard Wilson
Andreas Baader
Wendy Stern-Tomlinson
John Jellies
Ron Calabrese
John Kuwada
Bonnie Granzow
Bill Lytton
Chris earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009. Working with Eyal Seidemann, he studied neural correlates of stimulus sensitivity and behavioral decisions in monkey visual cortex. Currently he is using electrophysiology and voltage sensitive dye imaging to map out the interneuronal circuitry of the whole body shortening and local bending behaviors in medicinal leeches, and plans to use what is discovered about these circuits to derive mechanisms behind behavioral choice.
Chris Palmer - Post Doctoral Researcher
Benjamin’s work focuses on furthering the understanding of circuit dynamics in the leech via the development of novel optical tools. He is currently developing a dynamically addressable system to generate photostimulus patterns in the leech ganglion in conjunction with voltage sensitive dye imaging of neural responses. This project will allow for rapid and systematic probing of leech circuits throughout the relevant phase space of the animal.
Ben Migliori - Graduate Researcher
Vaibhav Konanur- Undergraduate Researcher
Vaibhav works to understand the circuitry of GABAergic synapses within ganglia of the medicinal leeches by means of immunohistochemistry, cellular morphology, and electrophysiology. He is currently in the process of locating GABAergic neurons on the dorsal side of leech ganglia by colocalization of a GABA antibody and dye filling of candidate GABAergic cells.
Alexander H. Banach - Undergraduate Researcher
Alex is currently studying the role of GABAergic inhibition during embryonic development. He currently uses behavioral and kinematic analysis, pigmentation pattern analysis, electrophysiology techniques, and fluorescence microscopy to help elucidate the importance of widespread inhibitory activity during sensitive stages of development.
E. Paxon Frady- Graduate Researcher
Paxon’s research involves using optical techniques to monitor the voltage activity of hundreds of neurons during behaviors in the leech. He is developing machine learning techniques to analyze this high-dimensional, spatial-temporal data in order to better understand the underlying dynamics of neural circuits.