NECTOW LAB TEAM
PhD, Neuroscience
Albert Einstein College of Medicine 2019
MS, Neuroscience
Albert Einstein College of Medicine 2019
MS, Applied Microbiology
University of Notre Dame 2012
BS, Biological Sciences
University of Notre Dame 2009
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 circuit dynamics of the dorsal raphe nucleus and its role in circadian rhythm and hunger. He is also interested in developing novel viral and chemogenetic strategies to identify and 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.
PhD, Neuroscience
Nagoya University 2018
MS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Chittagong 2011
BS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Chittagong 2010
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 dissecting the physiological roles of subpopulations in the DRN.
In his free time, Srikanth enjoys reading fiction and watching a game of cricket.
AB, Molecular Biology
Princeton University 2020
Michael Hill-Oliva
Research Technician
Michael received his AB in molecular biology from Princeton University in 2020. He completed his senior thesis in the lab of Danelle Devenport, studying signaling pathways important for polarizing planar tissue during development. In the Nectow Lab, he is interested in characterizing the heterogeneity of brainstem neurons regulating energy homeostasis and further developing intersectional genetic strategies for molecular profiling.
In his spare time, Michael enjoys playing guitar and running.
MD Candidate
Harvard University, Expected: 2024
AB, Neuroscience
Princeton University 2019
Varun Bhave
Research Technician
Varun received his AB in Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2019. He worked with Dr. Nectow throughout his undergrad years and also completed a senior thesis in the lab of Dr. Michael Berry II, using two-photon calcium imaging to study temporal sequence learning in primary visual cortex. In the Nectow lab, he is interested in better characterizing the cell-type heterogeneity of excitatory and inhibitory neural subpopulations in the DRN. Varun is currently a medical student at Harvard Medical School.
Outside of the lab, Varun enjoys reading philosophy and is perennially trying to improve his ping pong game.
MS Candidate, Computer Science
Columbia University, Expected: 2021
BS, Computer Science
Columbia University 2020
BA, Physics and Computer Science
Frankling & Marshall College 2018
Chenchen (Erica) Wei
Master's Student
Erica is a master's student at Columbia University, working towards completing her MS in Computer Science. She is specializing in machine learning. She completed a BS in Computer Science at Columbia and a BA in Physics at Franklin & Marshall College. She previously worked as a Research Assistant in the Knowles group, working on predicting responders to cancer immunotherapy. She developed a novel SVM and Autoencoder model to classify the responder to cancer immunotherapy. In the Nectow Lab, Erica is interested in designing and implementing novel machine learning/deep learning models to explore the hidden features underlying single-cell data and other complicated datasets in neuroscience.
In her free time, Erica enjoys watching movies, traveling, and exploring food around the world.
BS Candidate, Electrical Engineering
Columbia University, Expected: 2021
BA, Physics
Notre Dame of Maryland University 2019
Lesly Mendoza
Undergraduate Student
Lesly is working towards completing her BS in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Solid State Devices from Columbia University. She previously attended Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she obtained a BA in Physics. She is currently working on her senior design project developing a hearing device that will adjust sound frequencies real-time in order to help high-frequency hearing loss and auditory dyslexia. In the Nectow Lab, Lesly is interested in implementing engineering and physics principles in order to help analyze data and learn more about
the neuroscience field.
Outside of the lab, Lesly enjoys watching movies, reading and trying different foods.
BS Candidate, Electrical Engineering
Columbia University, Expected: 2022
Morgan Bakker
Undergraduate Student
Morgan is currently at Columbia University pursuing his BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. He has a specific interest in embedded systems design which he worked on this past summer at Steam Instruments. He specializes in server systems and will be pursuing this passion this coming summer as a HW intern at Facebook. In the Nectow Lab, Morgan is excited to integrate his hardware background with biology to build dynamic testing systems for mice.
Outside the lab Morgan enjoys soccer and sunny bike rides.
BS Candidate, Electrical Engineering
Columbia University, Expected: 2022
BS, Physics
Muhlenberg College 2020
Ji Ku
Undergraduate Student
Ji received her BS in physics from Muhlenberg College and AA from Montgomery County Community College. She is currently pursuing a BS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. Her past experience involved studying alternative energy sources and micro-biotechnology, during summers spent in the REU program and Temple University research internship. Ji is currently working on personal projects related to her field. In the Nectow Lab, she is currently working on animal pose estimation using deep neural networks.
Outside of the lab, Ji spends time with her family, playing video games, and working on side projects.
BS Candidate, Electrical Engineering
Columbia University, Expected: 2022
Mingyuan Zhang
Undergraduate Student
Mingyuan is pursuing his BS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. He is specializing in circuits and electronics. He is also experienced in mechanical design and computational neuroscience. He previously worked as an assistant engineer at Tuman Technology Co., Ltd (Beijing, CHN), where he worked on fabrication of alloyed material and mechanical design. Shortly after, he initiated multiple independent projects on logical and analog circuitry design. In the Nectow Lab, Mingyuan is interested in leveraging his electrical engineering background to model neural circuit function by integrating single-cell and polysynaptic tracing studies.
In his free time, Mingyuan enjoys reading about history and historical analysis. You can also find him traveling around the world to explore local foods.
BS Candidate, Computer Science
Columbia University, Expected: 2022
Elyas Obbad
Undergraduate Student
Elyas is working towards completing his BS in Computer Science from Columbia University. He previously worked in the Kenta Asahina's lab at the Salk Institute, where studied the role of a small group of FruM+ neurons on aggression-related behaviors. Shortly after, he worked with the Laurel Riek group at the UCSD Healthcare Robotics Lab to develop several software packages to support automatic group identification. In the Nectow Lab, Elyas is interested in leveraging his computational background to analyze single-cell RNA sequencing datasets and to classify novel cell types using machine learning methods.
Outside of lab, you can find Elyas playing tennis, hiking, or listening to hip hop.
PhD, Metabolism
IDIBAPS 2015
MS, Biomedicine
University of Barcelona 2011
BS, Pharmacy
University of Barcelona 2010
Marc Schneeberger
Collaborator
Marc received his PhD from the University of Barcelona under the supervision of Dr. Marc Claret to understand how mitochondrial dynamics in POMC neurons regulate energy balance. For his postdoctoral studies, he moved to New York City and has worked under the supervision of Prof. Jeffrey Friedman, where he has been characterizing two subsets of neurons in the brainstem’s dorsal raphe regulating energy homeostasis. For this work, Marc has been collaborating with the Nectow Laboratory for a number of years. Marc is now interested in uncovering premotor cell types and circuits involved in the regulation of thermogenesis.
In his free time Marc enjoys traveling, reading books and practice sports. He is also an extreme foodie.
Alumni
Tania Das Banerjee, Research Scientist, 2017 – 2019
Current position: Research Commercialization at Rutgers University
Bindiben Patel, Research Technician, 2016 – 2017
Current position: Analysis and Formulation Scientist at Thermo Fisher
Weimen Li, Undergraduate Student, 2016 – 2017
Current position: Instrumentation Engineer at ExxonMobil
Pratik Chheda, Undergraduate Student, 2016 – 2017
Current position: Data Scientist at CKM Analytics
Chitra Kumar, Undergraduate Student, 2016 – 2017
Current position: Clinical Research Coordinator at University of Chicago
Alicia Lai, Undergraduate Student, 2016 – 2017
Current position: J.D. Candidate at UPenn Law School