Gallery

2007

Anthony Leonardo Ph.D.

• Project Title: Neuronal Circuit Dynamics Underlying Dragonfly Prey Capture

2007

Erwin Idoux Ph.D.

• Project Title: Ontogeny of the Intrinsic Properties of the Neurons Responsible for the Velocity to Position Integration of Zebrafish (Danio rerio).
• Testimonial:
  The Grass Fellowship has been a very nurturing experience as it made me appear as an independant researcher to more senior colleagues giving me more freedom in my own research while allowing me to interact with bright young researchers during a fantastic summer of research in Woods Hole.

2007

Karen Maruska Ph.D.

• Project Title: Rapid Effects of Stress Hormones on Auditory Processing and Vocalization Abilities in the Oyster Toadfish Opsanus tau
• Testimonial:
  The Grass Fellowship program was the perfect academic bridge between my PhD and postdoc and allowed me the freedom to explore diverse research topics on a new model organism learn novel techniques and collect enough data for several publications all within a supportive fun and intellectually stimulating environment. My experience as a Grass fellow was amazing and on multiple levels has played a significant role in helping me achieve my career goal of becoming an independent scientist in academia.

2007

Robyn Crook

• Project Title: Spatial Learning and Memory in Chambered Nautilus Pompilius L.

2007

Theresa Szabo Ph.D.

• Project Title: Temperature-related Hormonal Effects on Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity
• Testimonial:
  The Grass Fellowship provided me with the opportunity to perform independent research which was published the following year (Szabo TM Brookings T Preuss T Faber DS. (2008) Effects of temperature acclimation on a central neural circuit and its behavioral output. J Neurophysiol 100(6):2997-3008). The experimental work published in this study was performed solely at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole MA and funded by the Grass Fellowship. Last year I obtained a position as Assistant Professor and this study provided the foundation not only for my job talk but is currently the starting point for the work of the three graduate students in my lab as well. The combination of facilities access to state-of-the-art equipment and interactions with some of the hardest-working brightest most helpful fantastic faculty and staff makes the Grass Fellowship an incredible opportunity for researchers seeking to gain independence and perform research entirely of their own design.

2007

Erik Zornik Ph.D.

• Project Title: Generating Complex Vocal Patterns in Xenopus laevis
• Testimonial:
  My Grass Fellowship provided the greatest training experience imaginable. It allowed me to pioneer a new technique develop and implement a project from its inception and to plan set up and manage my own small research program. It was a truly invaluable honor and a whole lot of fun to boot.?

2007

S.E. Roian Egnor Ph.D.

• Project Title: Vocal Behavior in the House Mouse (Mus musculus domesticus)

2006

Wayne J. Korzan Ph.D.

• Project Title: Behavioral and Hormonal Responses to Agonistic Interaction in the Toadfish

2006

Heather J. Rhodes Ph.D.

• Project Title: Searching for the Central Pattern Generator in the Vocal System
• Testimonial:
  Setting up my research project at MBL was the best possible preparation for setting up my own lab when I got my job here at Denison University. It was a chance to set up fully independent research but with an incredible wealth of support and expertise around me.

2006

Snezana Levic

• Project Title: Spontaneous Action Potential Activity in Developing Vertebrate Hair Cells: Control of Pattern and Efficacy of Synaptic Transfer

2006

Maria E. Castello Gomez Ph.D.

• Testimonial:
  The Grass Fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory represented for me a ?mind storm? as it was a unique and friendly post-Doc opportunity to develop and independent research project. I have no doubt that this experience has influenced my ?independent career trial? as I did have to face and cope with most the tasks I dealt with thereafter at my home Institution in Uruguay. Besides it constituted a great opportunity to be immersed in an inspiring institution and meet several outstanding scientists some of whom I still keep in contact.

2006

Adam D. Douglass

2006

J. Matthew Kittelberger Ph.D.

• Testimonial:
  As for how to make the Fellowship more visible: I became aware of the program mainly as a word-of-mouth kind of thing. It was just so understood among my colleagues as I was going through grad school that the Woods Hole neuroscience community was one-of-a-kind and a unique place to boost one?s training and make connections with fantastic neuroscientists. And it seems like perhaps (?) it?s become more of a niche thing recently: certain communities within neuroscience (the neuroethologists the electrophysiologists the alums of NB&B and the Neurobiology course) gravitate to it but others don?t. Does the program want to strengthen its ties to those communities? Or does it want to broaden its appeal to areas of neuroscience traditionally underrepresented in the Grass Program (which might include things like cognitive neuroscience computational neuroscience molecular neuroscience translational/pre-clinical neuro maybe developmental neuroscience)? If the latter it seems like the first thing would be to identify what areas are indeed underrepresented among Grass applicants and decide which of those might be particularly well-suited to the Grass experience. Things like primate work probably wouldn?t fly so well but I?m sure there are things fellows haven?t done so much in the past that could be an excellent fit. Then one could make a targeted push in those directions both by inviting faculty speakers in those areas (to get the word of mouth thing started) and by focused outreach at specific smaller conferences (Gordon conferences or whatever) and by identifying folks already part of the MBL neuro community with expertise in those areas (like faculty in the Neurobiology course) to provide advice and help spread the word themselves. Anyway that?s my 2 cents. Happy to chat about this with anyone if you like. Hope the summer?s starting out well! Best Matt

2006

Jamie Theobald Ph.D.

2005

Alvaro Sagasti Ph.D.

• Project Title: Cytoskeletal control of zebrafish sensory neuron branching
• Testimonial:
  I was a Grass Fellow in the summer of 2005 just before I started a faculty position at UCLA. The experience influenced the trajectory of my career in many positive ways. Having to design a focused project choose equipment trouble-shoot techniques and gather data all within a few months was invaluable preparation for getting my own lab off the ground quickly. The Grass lab also helped to make me a well rounded neuroscientist. Having trained in development neuroscience being exposed to the behavioral and physiological projects that my fellow fellows were pursuing helped me to think about the implications of my own work in new ways. More tangibly the creative and ambitious ethos of the Grass lab led me to test out new techniques?such as laser axotomy for studingy axon degeneration and regeneration?that have become the basis of many projects in my own lab. Finally (and perhaps most importantly) the camaraderie and immense fun I had with the other members of the lab provided me with lifelong connection to the MBL and a loyal network of friends and potential collaborators.

2005

Elizabeth Prescott Ph.D.

• Project Title: Development of a zebrafish model system to study ribbon synapse dynamics

2005

Kimberlei A. Richardson Ph.D.

• Project Title: The effect of development on the activation of neurons involved in neonatal opioid dependence

2005

Xiang Yu Ph.D.

• Project Title: Effect of changes in dendritic morphology mediated by the cadherin/catenin complex on the synaptic properties of CA1 pyramidal neurons

2005

Andrew T.E. Hartwick Ph.D.

• Project Title: Light-evoked calcium dynamics in melanopsin retinal ganglion cells
• Testimonial:
  For me the Grass Fellowship was an experience of a lifetime and I'll always cherish the memories of that summer spent at the MBL. During the Fellowship I performed pilot studies that formed the basis of my future postdoctoral work and I continue to draw on experiences from that summer even now as a principal investigator. The work I started that summer formed the basis of a paper that I published in 2007 in the Journal of Neuroscience. I'm attaching the paper and you can see that I acknowledged the Grass Fellowship in it.

2005

Petronella Kettunen Ph.D.

• Project Title: Metabotropic glutamate receptors in the zebrafish spinal cord

2004

Emma Heart Ph.D.

• Project Title: Nad(P)H Oscillations In Pancreatic Islet Cells And Their Modulation By Metabolic And Electric Stimuli

2004

Yumiko Umino Ph.D.

• Project Title: Processing Of Visual Information Of Limulus Brain

2004

Tamily A. Weissman Ph.D.

• Project Title: The Alzheimer'S Disease Pathway Meets Neuraldevelopment: Does Presenilin Process The Reelin Receptor And Regulateneuronal Migration?

2004

Robert Crooks Froemke Ph.D.

• Project Title: The Cellular Mechanisms And Synaptic Organization Of Neocortical Receptive Fields

2004

Leib Litman Ph.D.

• Project Title: In Search For A Model Organism For Complex Forms Of Implicit Learning: Exploring Crypsis And The Serial Reaction Time Task In Cuttlefish

2004

Eric Briant Gonzales Ph.D.

• Project Title: Kinetic Determinants Of The Second Transmembrane Domain 7&Acute; Position In The Glycine α1 Receptor

2004

James Jiayuan Tong Ph.D.

• Project Title: Mitochonddria Dynamics In Synaptic Plasticity And Learning

2003

S. Clare Chung Ph.D.

• Project Title: Characterization of Zebrafish mutants

2003

Gal Haspel Ph.D.

• Project Title: Photoactivation of C. elegans neurons

2003

Sandra J. Kuhlman Ph.D.

• Project Title: Role for fast GABAergic transmission in promoting synaptic competition

2003

Anthony Molina Ph.D.

• Project Title: The role of extracellular pH microdomains in visual processing

2003

Karen Cusato Ph.D.

• Project Title: Gap Junction-Mediated Cell Death

2003

Jennifer R. Morgan Ph.D.

• Project Title: Mechanisms of Actin Regulation at the Synapse

2003

Gabe J. Murphy Ph.D.

• Project Title: Mechanisms of Feedback Inhibition in the Retina

2002

Gonzalo G. De Polavieja Ph.D.

• Project Title: Behavioral Algorithm and Circuitry for Visual Motion Detection in the Leech

2002

Matthias Gruhn Ph.D.

• Project Title: Correlation of Extracellular Nerve Recordings and Behavioral Activity in Live Crayfish Using Implantable Electrodes and High-Speed Video Technology

2002

Damian Wheeler Ph.D.

• Project Title: Multiprotein Complex Signaling from Synapse to Nucleus

2002

Dima Rinberg Ph.D.

• Project Title: Optical Recording of Multineuron Activity Using Ballistic Delivery of Voltage Sensitive Dyes

2002

Adrian Rodriquez-Contreras Ph.D.

• Project Title: Intrinsic properties Distribution and Morphology of Inhibitory Neurons in the Midbrain Auditory Pathway of Chicken

2002

Rooma Desai Ph.D.

• Project Title: Isolation of K+ Currents Underlying the Chopper Response of Principal Cells of the Lateral Superior Olive (LSO)

1997

Mark Levandoski Ph.D.

• Project Title: Chimeric Analysis of a-Bungarotoxin Binding Sequences in Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors.

1997

John Layne Ph.D.

• Project Title: Coordination of Optokinesis and Locomotion During Course Control in the Fiddler Crab Uca pugilator.

1997

Quoc Thang Nguyen Ph.D.

• Project Title: Neuotransmitter Synthesis in mRNA-Injected Xenopus Oocytes.

1997

John R. "Jack" Gray Ph.D.

• Project Title: Neural Circuitry Underlying a Novel Motor Pattern Expressed During Metamorphis of the Hawkmoth Manduca sexta.

1997

Janet L. Casagrand Ph.D.

• Project Title: Pressure-Sensitive Auditory Input to the Mauthner Cells in the Goldfish: Origin Response Properties and Connectivity

1997

Matthew Halstead

• Project Title: Electrophysiology of the Electrosensory Midbrain of the Little Skate Raja erinacea to Biologically Realistic Stimuli

1997

Hiroshi Tokumaru Ph.D.

• Project Title: The Role of Synapin/Complexin in Transmitter Release at the Squid Giant Synapse.