On the 2026–2027 faculty job market
I study how prefrontal circuits build lasting memories, and how those memories go on to guide behavior.
My research links changes in individual neurons to the shifting roles of brain-wide networks. I also ask when induced plasticity can reshape those networks and the learning that follows.
Research directions
My lab will study how prefrontal circuits build and coordinate the brain-wide networks behind lasting memories, and how psychedelics and related compounds change those networks and the behavior they drive.
These studies address mechanisms relevant to persistent threat responses in PTSD and, through future collaborations, compulsive seeking in addiction and inflexible negative expectations in depression.
How do local prefrontal circuits select the neurons and pathways that become part of a lasting memory? I will test how memory encoding neurons and local inhibitory populations recruit projection-defined neurons as memories consolidate, and how behavioral control and prior trauma change these rules.
Longitudinal calcium imaging · time-restricted chemogenetics · active avoidance and stress-enhanced fear learning
How do branches of the same prefrontal neurons coordinate distinct functions across a distributed memory network? I will identify the target cell types and downstream pathways that produce opposing effects, and test whether prefrontal input during consolidation establishes a region’s later role in recall.
Projection-specific calcium imaging · terminal inhibition · whole-brain axon mapping
When does enhanced plasticity support adaptive memory updating? I will test whether circuit organization at the time of treatment determines how psychedelics and related compounds, beginning with the non-hallucinogenic analogue tabernanthalog, alter remote memory and new learning.
Treatment timing × longitudinal imaging · projection-specific spine measurements · extinction and trauma models
Featured research
Revised & resubmitted · Nature NeuroscienceAs a memory matures, memory encoding neurons recruit a new population of prefrontal projection neurons into the memory network. Two branches of that population then push remote recall in opposite directions.
Experimental & computational expertise
Longitudinal one-photon calcium imaging follows identified neurons from learning through remote recall; fiber photometry measures population and neuromodulatory signals.
Activity-dependent labeling, whole-brain clearing and imaging, and targeted optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations connect anatomy to function.
Mouse models of psychiatric and neurological disorders connect circuit mechanisms to persistent, maladaptive behavior.
Single-cell encoding analyses, machine-learning embeddings and decoding, and in silico lesions of functional subpopulations reveal how neurons and ensembles represent cues, context, and behavior.
Open-source software and hardware, including BehaviorDEPOT, support reproducible behavioral measurement.
Publications
bioRxiv · revised and resubmitted, Nature Neuroscience
Nature Neuroscience (2026)
Current Biology 35, 4259–4269 (2025)
About
I’m a neuroscientist and neuroengineer at UCLA investigating how prefrontal circuits reorganize to support lasting memories and guide behavior.
As a postdoctoral scholar with Laura DeNardo in the Department of Physiology, I combine longitudinal neural recordings, circuit mapping, and targeted manipulations to study how memories mature, and how prefrontal dopamine supports learning to avoid threat.
During my PhD with Esther Krook-Magnuson at the University of Minnesota, where I minored in neuroengineering, I studied how cerebellar perturbations alter hippocampal activity and memory, and developed a mouse model of ventral hippocampal epilepsy. My research has been supported by NIMH, NINDS, and NSF.
I have lectured to undergraduate and graduate students in Biology of Learning and Memory at UCLA and Human Neuroanatomy at the University of Minnesota, and mentored seven undergraduate and graduate researchers, most of whom are co-authors on my papers. I help trainees become independent by having them present their research early and often.
I co-founded UCLA SYNCS, a postdoc seminar series that invites speakers for their science and for what they give back, such as open-source tools or public outreach. As chair of UCLA’s Postdoctoral Research Union, I advocated for more than 1,000 postdoctoral scholars and helped secure a childcare stipend for postdocs across the University of California system. Strong science depends on strong communities, and I am dedicated to building them in the lab, across a department, and throughout the field.
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