Current Lab Members
Tom Clandinin
Professor, Neurobiology
Tom is the Shooter Family Professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University. He completed his Ph.D. under the guidance of Paul Sternberg at the California Institute of Technology in 1998, before beginning his postdoctoral work at University of California, Los Angeles in the lab of Larry Zipursky. He established his lab at Stanford in 2002. Tom has trained more than 20 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows over his time at Stanford. His honors include an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a career development award from the Burroughs Welcome Fund, a Searle Scholar Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Scholar Award from the McKnight Foundation.
Ashley Smart
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Ashley received her B.A. in neuroscience from Pomona College in 2010. There, with Dr. Karl Johnson, she looked at fly embryos to figure out how glycoproteins help axons navigate through a constantly changing, developing organism to end up in the right location. After a few months in the lab she was so amazed with how something so complex could work that she decided to go to graduate school. In graduate school in neuroscience at UCSF she wanted to understand how caspases (the ultimate cell destroyers) could be active in neurons without killing them. She went deep into protein biology and engineered a light-activated Caspase-3 that she then used on Drosophila test subjects under the guidance of Dr. Jim Wells and Dr. Grae Davis. Now in the Clandinin lab, she is excited to be expanding out from molecules to work toward understanding the brain at a circuit level. Outside of lab she likes to spend some time drawing and painting, running, playing board games, and exploring. |
Tim Currier
Postdoctoral Fellow
Tim grew up outside Boston, MA and earned his undergraduate degree at Hamilton College in upstate New York. After finishing his graduate work with Kathy Nagel at NYU, Tim drove across the country to join the Clandinin Lab in late 2020. With Tom, Tim is exploring how connectivity, gene expression, and developmental experience work together to define the diverse functional roles of neurons in the fly visual system. Outside the lab, Tim loves to read gigantic tomes of epic fantasy, play tennis, watch anime, cook, and hike with his fellow Clandininites!
Tim grew up outside Boston, MA and earned his undergraduate degree at Hamilton College in upstate New York. After finishing his graduate work with Kathy Nagel at NYU, Tim drove across the country to join the Clandinin Lab in late 2020. With Tom, Tim is exploring how connectivity, gene expression, and developmental experience work together to define the diverse functional roles of neurons in the fly visual system. Outside the lab, Tim loves to read gigantic tomes of epic fantasy, play tennis, watch anime, cook, and hike with his fellow Clandininites!
Chung-Ha Davis
Postdoctoral Fellow
Chung-ha is originally from South Korea. He grew up in Louisiana and Florida, and he went to the Johns Hopkins University for undergrad. He spent time in Baltimore and Davis as a research technician with Dr. Nick Marsh-Armstrong studying neuron-glia interactions in frog and mouse optic nerve. Chung-ha obtained his PhD under the guidance of Dr. Nirao Shah and Dr. Liqun Luo at Stanford, identifying neural circuits that govern sexual behavior and reward in male mice. In the Clandinin lab, Chung-ha is investigating the structure of cell biological events throughout the day that support a thriving brain!
Chung-ha is originally from South Korea. He grew up in Louisiana and Florida, and he went to the Johns Hopkins University for undergrad. He spent time in Baltimore and Davis as a research technician with Dr. Nick Marsh-Armstrong studying neuron-glia interactions in frog and mouse optic nerve. Chung-ha obtained his PhD under the guidance of Dr. Nirao Shah and Dr. Liqun Luo at Stanford, identifying neural circuits that govern sexual behavior and reward in male mice. In the Clandinin lab, Chung-ha is investigating the structure of cell biological events throughout the day that support a thriving brain!
Albert Lin
Postdoctoral Fellow (Joint with Murthy Lab @ Princeton)
Albert received his A.B. in Physics from Princeton University with a certificate in Biophysics, and his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University. In his graduate work in Dr. Aravinthan Samuel’s lab, Albert developed methods for recording and analyzing ensemble-level and whole-brain neural activity in the nematode C. elegans. Currently in the Murthy and Clandinin labs, Albert uses two-photon functional imaging to study brainwide multi-sensory integration in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Outside of the lab, Albert enjoys cooking, reading history, and hiking (especially when in California)!
Albert received his A.B. in Physics from Princeton University with a certificate in Biophysics, and his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University. In his graduate work in Dr. Aravinthan Samuel’s lab, Albert developed methods for recording and analyzing ensemble-level and whole-brain neural activity in the nematode C. elegans. Currently in the Murthy and Clandinin labs, Albert uses two-photon functional imaging to study brainwide multi-sensory integration in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Outside of the lab, Albert enjoys cooking, reading history, and hiking (especially when in California)!
Jacob Cyert Simon
Postdoctoral Fellow
Jacob is a Postdoc in the Clandinin lab, where he is studying roles of metabotropic receptor signaling in visual processing. Before coming to Stanford, Jacob did his PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT where he designed sensors for molecular neuroimaging with MRI. Jacob grew up in the Bay Area and did his undergraduate studies in Physics and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. When he’s not in the lab you’ll find Jacob doing one of his many hobbies.
Jacob is a Postdoc in the Clandinin lab, where he is studying roles of metabotropic receptor signaling in visual processing. Before coming to Stanford, Jacob did his PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT where he designed sensors for molecular neuroimaging with MRI. Jacob grew up in the Bay Area and did his undergraduate studies in Physics and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. When he’s not in the lab you’ll find Jacob doing one of his many hobbies.
David Tardes
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Coming soon... |
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Lianna Wat
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Lianna is a postdoc studying how diet perturbations impact neuronal metabolic function. She completed her PhD in the Rideout Lab at the University of British Columbia where she studied the sex-dependent regulation of fat metabolism using Drosophila as a model – this work led to Lianna receiving the Larry Sandler Award from the Genetics Society of America in 2022. In the Clandinin lab, she plans on building on her passion for investigating sex differences in metabolism and physiology by interrogating how whole-brain function is altered in response to dietary stress in both males and females. Outside the lab, Lianna is an avid animal lover, reader, yogi, and cook. |
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Alex Yukun Hao
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Alex is a postdoc in the Clandinin lab studying the signal processing of single neurons and the dynamics of neuronal populations in flies. |
Minseung Choi
Graduate Student
Minseung is a graduate student in the Clandinin and Druckmann Labs, where he studies the role of internal state in visual perception. He also enjoys developing tools to facilitate reproducible and efficient experimentation and analysis. Before coming to Stanford, he studied Computer Science at Princeton University, where he also investigated the role of learning in fly courtship in the Murthy Lab. He also characterized how DNA methylation in mammalian cells evolves during development in the Laird Lab at the University of Washington.
Minseung is a graduate student in the Clandinin and Druckmann Labs, where he studies the role of internal state in visual perception. He also enjoys developing tools to facilitate reproducible and efficient experimentation and analysis. Before coming to Stanford, he studied Computer Science at Princeton University, where he also investigated the role of learning in fly courtship in the Murthy Lab. He also characterized how DNA methylation in mammalian cells evolves during development in the Laird Lab at the University of Washington.
Emma Theisen
Graduate Student
Emma is a PhD student in the Clandinin Lab, where she works on studying how neurons coordinate their energy supply across changing activity demands. Beginning in the womb and continuing until death, our brains conduct an orchestra of circuit activity, coordinated across billions of neurons through trillions of communication nodes called synapses. However, maintaining synapse function is energetically expensive, challenging the brain to match energy supply with demand. To dissect these mechanisms, Emma uses tools uniquely available in the fruit fly to measure how neuronal energy consumption fluctuates in real time with changing activity demands. Using quantitative modeling from economics in collaboration with Prof. Lanier Benkard, she also aims to understand the dynamics of supply and demand within single neurons.
Emma is a PhD student in the Clandinin Lab, where she works on studying how neurons coordinate their energy supply across changing activity demands. Beginning in the womb and continuing until death, our brains conduct an orchestra of circuit activity, coordinated across billions of neurons through trillions of communication nodes called synapses. However, maintaining synapse function is energetically expensive, challenging the brain to match energy supply with demand. To dissect these mechanisms, Emma uses tools uniquely available in the fruit fly to measure how neuronal energy consumption fluctuates in real time with changing activity demands. Using quantitative modeling from economics in collaboration with Prof. Lanier Benkard, she also aims to understand the dynamics of supply and demand within single neurons.
Ilana Zucker-Scharff
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Graduate Student
Ilana got her B.A. in Neuroscience & Behavior from Barnard College where she was first introduced to neuroscience research in the lab of Dr. Stephen Rayport while studying therapeutic targets of schizophrenia. For her undergraduate thesis work she followed a newfound passion for neuroethology all the way to South Africa alongside Dr. Steffen Foerster to research stress and social behavior in chacma baboons. After graduating, she pursued a curiosity for the underlying molecular mechanisms of the brain to the lab of Dr. Robert Darnell where she investigated the regulation of neuron-specific RNA binding proteins as they relate to human disease. Ilana came to Stanford in 2018 with every intention to continue studying behavior in the brain of mammals but fell head over heels for drosophila neurobiology and joined the Clandinin lab in 2019. In the lab she is interested in the evolution of the visual system and the role it plays in decision making, particularly in the context of social behavior. |
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Yandan Wang
Graduate Student
Yandan received her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of New Hampshire in 2016. There she studied stress-induced anxiety and mood disorders with a rat model. With her curiosities about how the central nervous system interacts with other systems, she then enrolled in a Master's program in Human Physiology at Boston University to study brain vasculature health in an aging mouse model. Then, she starts to be obsessed with studying neural mechanisms underlying different functions. First, she joined the Liberles lab to study the interoceptive system to taste the beauty of circuit neuroscience. Then, she joined the Clandinin lab to further "ignite" her "scientific obsession" with system neuroscience approaches.
Yandan received her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of New Hampshire in 2016. There she studied stress-induced anxiety and mood disorders with a rat model. With her curiosities about how the central nervous system interacts with other systems, she then enrolled in a Master's program in Human Physiology at Boston University to study brain vasculature health in an aging mouse model. Then, she starts to be obsessed with studying neural mechanisms underlying different functions. First, she joined the Liberles lab to study the interoceptive system to taste the beauty of circuit neuroscience. Then, she joined the Clandinin lab to further "ignite" her "scientific obsession" with system neuroscience approaches.
Manze Zhang
Graduate Student
Coming soon....
Coming soon....
Lorna Jayne
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Graduate Student
Lorna is a graduate student in the Clandinin lab where she plans on studying dendritic integration. Before coming to Stanford, she worked on a range of projects, from studying synaptic physiology during her undergraduate research in the Hoppa lab at Dartmouth to studying torpor and hibernation-like states as a research assistant in the Greenberg lab at Harvard and the Hrvatin lab at MIT. In the Clandinin lab, she hopes to harness the tractability of the Drosophila visual system to decode single-neuron computations. |
Michelle Pang
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Graduate Student
Michelle is interested in understanding sensory processing at the cellular and molecular level. Currently, she is using in vivo two-photon imaging, genetically-encoded indicators of neural activity, and cell type-specific genetic manipulations to study neurons in the early Drosophila visual system. Prior to graduate school, Michelle received her B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology (Neurobiology track) and Linguistics from UC Berkeley in 2013, and she studied magnetotactic bacteria in Dr. Arash Komeili's lab at Berkeley. Outside of lab, Michelle likes learning new languages and working with kids. |
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Mikaela Wilson
Graduate Student
Mikaela grew up in Texas and running around rural Louisiana with her Cajun family. After she earned her B.S. degree at St. Edward’s University in Austin, she worked on a range of projects. From studying the foraging behavior of red harvester ants with Dr. Deborah Gordon at Stanford to exploring the neurodegenerative diseases as a technician in Dr. Ilya Bezprozvanny’s lab at UT Southwestern and the effects of aging on neural stem cells in the brain as a research assistant/lab manager in Dr. Anne Brunet’s lab at Stanford. In 2023 she joined the Clandinin Lab where, with Tom and fellow Clandinites, she plans to combine her interests in animal behavior and neurobiology in asking questions about how we define sleep and it’s functioning within the brain. Outside the lab, Mikaela has a deep love for insects, enjoys fieldwork and lab life alike, loves teaching, and is always on the lookout for the next great pun.
Mikaela grew up in Texas and running around rural Louisiana with her Cajun family. After she earned her B.S. degree at St. Edward’s University in Austin, she worked on a range of projects. From studying the foraging behavior of red harvester ants with Dr. Deborah Gordon at Stanford to exploring the neurodegenerative diseases as a technician in Dr. Ilya Bezprozvanny’s lab at UT Southwestern and the effects of aging on neural stem cells in the brain as a research assistant/lab manager in Dr. Anne Brunet’s lab at Stanford. In 2023 she joined the Clandinin Lab where, with Tom and fellow Clandinites, she plans to combine her interests in animal behavior and neurobiology in asking questions about how we define sleep and it’s functioning within the brain. Outside the lab, Mikaela has a deep love for insects, enjoys fieldwork and lab life alike, loves teaching, and is always on the lookout for the next great pun.
Estela Stephenson
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Lab Manager
Estela received her degree in accounting from the National School of Commerce in El Salvador. She has been working at Stanford for 14 years and joined the Clandinin Lab in February of 2018. She enjoys being outdoors—camping, fishing, hiking, and getting to know new places—and spending time with her family and her lovely dog, Spartacus. |
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Janina Troper
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Undergraduate researcher
Coming soon...
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