NECTOW LAB TEAM

Nachiket Kamatkar

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nachi received his BS and MS from the University of Notre Dame. His master’s thesis was on swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the laboratory of Joshua Shrout. For his PhD, Nachi moved to Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he studied FGF signaling in the central nervous system in the laboratory of Jean Hebert and developed RNA aptamers specific for FGFR3, in collaboration with Dr. Matthew Levy. In the Nectow lab, Nachi is interested in studying neural dynamics of the dorsal raphe nucleus and its role in hunger. He has recently identified a new mechanism through which the brainstem regulates meal timing. He is also interested in developing novel viral strategies to anatomically dissect neural circuits required for energy homeostasis.

Nachi was recently awarded a position on an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Training Grant for metabolism research.

In his free time, Nachi enjoys exploring NYC, playing chess, and visiting breweries.

Srikanth Chowdhury

Postdoctoral Fellow

Srikanth received his BS and MS from the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. Shortly after graduation, he joined the University of Chittagong as a lecturer and started working with Abu Shadat M Noman to study the pattern of TLR expression in arsenic-exposed hPBMCs. For his PhD, Srikanth moved to Nagoya University in Japan where he worked with Akihiro Yamanaka, studying the interactions between neural circuits regulating sleep and wakefulness. Shortly after completing his PhD, Srikanth moved back to the University of Chittagong where he started working at the intersection of neuroscience and oncology. In the Nectow lab, Srikanth is interested in using molecular profiling to dissect the roles of subpopulations in the DRN, with a particular emphasis on satiation.

Srikanth was previously awarded the Russell Berrie Foundation's Berrie Fellowship in Diabetes Research. He was recently awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Diabetes Association.

In his free time, Srikanth enjoys reading fiction and watching a game of cricket.

Alexander Sisti

Postdoctoral Fellow

Alexander received his BA from Columbia University. After graduation, he was a technician in the Dranovsky-Leonardo lab, working on the effects of stress and environment on neural stem cells in the dentate gyrus. He then joined Columbia University's MD/PhD program, performing his PhD studies in the laboratory of Charles Zuker. In the Zuker lab, Alexander studied the role of the gut-brain axis on food intake and nutrient preference. In particular, he identified a vagally-mediated, taste-independent pathway responsible for sugar craving. After graduating, Alexander then went on to pursue clinical training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is now pursing a clinical fellowship in cardiology at NYP-Columbia. In the Nectow lab, Alexander is interested in understanding neuro-cardiac interactions through the lens of the vagus nerve.

For his work, Alexander has received multiple awards, most notably Columbia's Titus Munson Coan Prize.

Jing Liu

Staff Scientist/Lab Manager

Jing received her PhD from SUNY Downstate. After graduation, she joined Henry Ginbserg's laboratory at Columbia University Medical Center as a postdoctoral fellow. In the Ginsberg lab, she focused on the role of hepatic insulin signaling in regulating lipid metabolism, linking insulin resistance to dyslipidemia. More recently, her research has focused on using CRISPR-Cas9 to edit proteins involved in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

In the Nectow lab, Jing is interested in understand the molecular mechanisms underlying brain-body interactions.

Amajindi Nwankpa

Staff Associate I

Amajindi is a staff associate in the Nectow lab. He recently spent a year as a technician in Maya Kumar's lab at Stanford University's School of Medicine working on pulmonary biology. Prior to that time, he completed his undergraduate work at New York University, working in Marc Gershow's lab on convolutional neural networks. In the Nectow lab, Amajindi is looking to combine his computational and wet lab experiences to understand the neural control of meal initiation and termination.

Junlin Wu

Master's Student

Junlin is a graduate student in the lab who is a Master's Candidate in the Data Science program at Columbia University. His previous research experiences have involved work deep learning and data visualization. In the Nectow Lab, he is interested in focusing his efforts on the computational analysis of neural activity in freely-moving animals.

Christa Akerele

Undergraduate Student

Christa is an undergraduate at Columbia University in the Science Research Fellows program, planning to major in Neuroscience and Behavior. In previous research, Christa worked with Dr. Dolores Malaspina investigating the impact of gut microbiota on symptoms in various mental illnesses; she also studied the impact of beta endorphins released during intense exercise on colon cancer cell proliferation. In the Nectow Lab, she is excited to explore the role of the dorsal raphe nucleus in energy balance, while also exploring other brainstem loci that may play important roles in driving diverse innate behaviors.

Christa was recently awarded a second year of funding from Columbia's Summer Program for Underrepresented Students (SPURS) to continue her work on the DRN.

In her free time, Christa enjoys running and volunteer tutoring.

Ethan Kushnerik

Undergraduate Student

Ethan is an undergraduate student in the lab who is planning to major in Biological Sciences at Columbia University. He has previously worked worked as a medical volunteer, helping physicians. In the Nectow lab, Ethan is interested in characterizing the neural circuit architecture responsible for controlling meal size and timing.

Outside of the lab, Ethan is a fencer, and is part of the senior fencing national team, the junior fencing national team, and the Columbia fencing team.